LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

[SMITHSONIAN DEPOSIT.] 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



/ 

POPERY, 

j 1 

THE ENEMY AND THE FALSIFIER 
OF SCRIPTURE. 



OB, 

FACTS AND EVIDENCES, 

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE CONDUCT OF THE MODERN 

CHURCH OF ROME, 

IN PROHIBITING THE READING AND CIRCULATION OF THE 
HOLY SCRIPTURES IN THE VULGAR TONGUE ,* *^ 

AND ALSO OF THE 



FALSIFICATION OF THE SACRED TEXT IN TRANSLATIONS 
OF THE BIBLE EXECUTED BY ROMANISTS. 



Of J 



Ye have taken away the key of knowledge."— Luke xi. 



LONDON: 
WILLIAM EDWARD PAINTER, 312, STRAND, 

MDCCCXLIY. 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



TESTIMONIES 

FOR, 
THE READING 
OF 

THE SCRIPTURES. 



" Search the Scriptures." 
— "Blessed are they that 
hear the word of God, and 
keep it." — Jesus Christ. 

" Take the sword of 

the Spirit, which is the 
word of God." — "Prove 
all things." — Saint Paul. 

" What is the Holy Scrip- 
ture, but an epistle of Al- 
mighty God to his crea- 
tures ? Study, there- 
fore, I pray thee, and medi- 
tate ON THE WORDS of thy 

Creator. Learn the mind of 
God in the word of God." — 
Gregory I., Bishop of the 
ancient Church at Rome, 
aiid a canonized Saint of the 
modem Church of Rome. 



PROHIBITION 
OF THE READING OF 
THE SCRIPTURES 

BY THE 
ROMISH CHURCH. 



" If any one shall 
have the presump- 
tion to read or 
possess it" [that is, 
"the Holy Bible 
translated into the 
vulgar tongue " ] 
" without such 
written permis- 
sion" [that is, of 
a priest, confessor, 
&c] "he shall not 
receive absolution 
until he have first 

DELIVERED UP SUCH 
BIBLE TO THE OR- 
DINARY." 

Rule IV. of the 
Index of Pro- 
hibited Books. 



POPEKY, THE ENEMY OF SCRIPTURE, 



ETC. 



[Reprinted, by request, from the " Church of England Quarterly Review" for October 1844.] 



If there be one fact more notorious than another in the practice 
of the modern Church of Rome, it is the sedulous and incessant 
care with which — in all countries where Popery is dominant 
— her bishops and priests keep the holy Scriptures from the 
people. Where, however, Papists live in society with Protes- 
tants, they would gladly conceal this fact, if it were possible ; 
and they spare no pains to cause it to be believed, that their 
section of the universal Church never withheld the Bible from 
the people. Hence the Romish " bishops, and vicars apostolic, 
and their coadjutors in Great Britain," in their " Declaration," 
which was first published in 1826, and which has recently 
been re-printed,* complain that " they are still exhibited to the 

public as enemies to the circulation and to the reading of 

the holy Scriptures (Preamble, p. 4) ; and that " the Catholic" 
[Romish] " Church is held out as an enemy to the reading and 
circulating of the holy Scriptures." (Sect. 3, p. 7). How justly 
that Church is so " held out" (even if we had not abundance 
of historical evidence to prove the fact), will be evident from 
the vehement denunciations of the present Pope, Gregory XVI., 
in his Encyclical Letter,! against an association instituted (as he 
states) at New York, called the " Christian League ;" which was 



* The mis-statements of the " Declaration" of the Romish bishops, &c. , were 
exposed and refuted by the Rev. Philip Alvvood, in his " Brief Remarks," pub- 
lished in 1826; and paragraph by paragraph by the Rev. George Tovvnsend, in 
his very able " Review" of that pamphlet, published in 1827. The recent re- 
print of the " Declaration" called forth a " Brief Reply" and refutation, pub- 
lished by the Loughborough and Ashby-de-la-Zouch (Church of England) 
Protestant Tract Society, in 1843 — a society which, with comparatively small 
means, we rejoice to say, has hitherto been eminently useful in the district 
which is within the sphere of its labours. This " Brief Reply" is admirably 
adapted for circulation, as an antidote to the " Declaration" of the Romish 
bishops. 

t " Lettre Encyclique du Pape Gregoire XVI." — Archives du Christianisme, 
Juin 8, 1844. Paris. " Circular from his Holiness the Pope," translated in 
" The English Churchman" of June 20th, 1844. 



4 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



formed for the express purpose of circulating " among Italians, 
and especially the Romans," what the Pope is pleased to term 
" corrupt and vulgar Bibles," together with Merle D'Aubigne's 
" History of the Reformation," and Dr. M'Crie's " History of 
the Reformation in Italy." If, indeed, we may judge of the 
success which, with the divine blessing, has attended the 
efforts made to circulate the unadulterated Scriptures on 
the continent, by the opposition which those efforts have 
excited, we have abundant cause for joy at the bitter hos- 
tility against the Bible, which breathes in almost every para- 
graph of the Pope's Encyclical Letter. The publication of this 
letter in the English" journals is such an irrefragable evidence 
of the enmity of Rome to the circulation and reading of the 
Scriptures, that we are not at all surprised that English Ro- 
manists should have expressed " some displeasure" at the re- 
printing of it in this country. In the United States of America, 
the intolerant and arrogant tone of this papal epistle has 
excited only disgust and contempt.* 

As this Encyclical Letter refers with approbation to the 
efforts of those pontiffs, his predecessors, who, in the plenitude 
of their usurped supremacy, denounced all Protestant versions 
of the Bible ; we think (at least we, hope) that we shall render 
a service to the reader of these pages, by placing upon record 
some documentary evidence on this subject : and since Gre- 
gory XVI. has thought proper to charge Protestant versions 
with being " corrupt," we shall proceed to adduce some con- 
vincing testimonies, which will demonstrate, that where the 
Church of Rome cannot altogether prevent the holy Scriptures 
from being translated and circulated, she has made no scruple 
of falsifying the text. 

One of the earliest proofs on record occurred in the year 
1080. Wratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, had requested Saint 
Gregory VII. (better known by the name of Hildebrandf) to 
permit the celebration of divine service in the Sclavonian lan- 
guage, which was understood by his subjects. This reasonable 



* In the New York Weekly Herald, of July 30, 1844, it is asserted that 
Gregory XVI. issued his letter at the solicitation of John Hughes, the Romish 
bishop at New York. 

t The whole life of this man was one unceasing and unprincipled effort to 
realize the universal dominion of the world, which he claimed as an appendage 
to the see of Rome. Against his canonization, in the eighteenth century, by 
Benedict XIII., every government which at that time was in communion with 
Rome, protested, and rejected his saintship ; so that he is acknowledged and 
venerated only at Rome and in Ireland.— Bishop Phillpotts Supplemental Letter 
to Charles Sutler, Esq., pp. 145-150. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



5 



request was peremptorily refused by the haughty pontiff, on 
the pretext that the Almighty thought fit that holy Scripture 
should be concealed in some places, lest, if it should be acces- 
sible to all, it should fall into contempt, and, being misunder- 
stood, should lead the people into error.* 

In the year 1229, during the pontificate of Gregory IX., a 
council was held at Toulouse, in which, besides various en- 
actments against those who were denounced as heretics, and 
also against those princes who did not extirpate all heretics 
out of their dominions, the laity are, by the thirteenth canon, 
prohibited from having the books of the Old or New Testa- 
ment, unless any one, out of devotion, should wish to have a 
psalter, or a breviary for the divine offices, or the Hours of the 
Blessed Mary. But they are most strictly forbidden to 
have these books in the vulgar tongueA 

This language cannot be misunderstood. The Romish theo- 
logians, who were convened at that council, assumed authority 
to deprive the people of that divine revelation which had been 
given to be " a light unto their feet, and a lamp unto their 
path." Not even such portions, as might be found in a psalter 
or breviary, were to be allowed, except in a dead language. 
And no wonder : " for every one that doeth evil hateth the 
light, and cometh not to the light, that his works be not re- 
proved." (Anglo-Romish version of John iii. 20). The Church 
of Rome shuns the light, and shrinks from a free comparison 
of her doctrines and practices with the only test which God 
has given of a true and pure Church. 

Though calling itself an oecumenical or general council, 
that assembly was wholly composed of divines of the Roman 
obedience ; and the histories of its proceedings prove that 
they were all regulated, either in pursuance of orders from 
Rome, or in conformity with the express wishes of the Popes. 
Its sittings commenced December 3rd, 1545, and were con- 



* " Quia vero nobilitas tua postulavit, quod secundum Sclavonicam linguam 
apud vos divinum celebrari annueremus officium ; scias nos huic petitioni tuse 
nequaquam posse favere. Ex hoc nempe saepe volventibus liquet, non ira- 
raerito sacram Scripturam omnipotenti Deo placuisse quibusdam locis esse 
occultam ; ne si ad liquidum cunctis pateret, forte vilesceret, et subjaceret des- 
pectui, aut prave intellecta a mediocribus in errorem induceret." — Greg. VII. 9 
Epist. lib. vii. Ep. 11, in Cardinal Baronius's Annales Ecclesiastici, torn. 17, 
p. 496. Lucae, 1745, fol. 

t " Prohibemus, ne libros Veteris Testamenti aut Novi laici permittentur 
habere ; nisi forte psalterium, vel breviarium pro divinis officiis, aut Horas beatae 
Mariae, aliquis ex devotione habere velit. Sed ne prcetermissos libros haheant in 
vulgari lingua translatos arctissime inhibemus." — Labbi et Cossart, Concilia, 
torn, xi., part 1, col, 430. 



6 Popery the 'Enemy of Scripture, 



tinned (with interruptions, caused by suspension and removal 
to Bologna, from March 25th, 1547, to September 1st, 1551,) 
until December 4th, 1563 ; thus completing a period of eigh- 
teen years, during which it was under the infallible direction 
of Paul III., Julius II., and Pius IV * 

In the eighteenth session of the Council of Trent, it was 
referred to a committee to prepare an index of prohibited 
books ; but as they had not finished their labours at the close 
of the session, that business was entrusted to Pope Pius IV., 
under whose auspices the first index was published in 1564.1 
Ten rules are prefixed to this index, which are retained in all 
subsequent impressions of it. We extract a few passages, to 
show the rigour with which the Romish Church, like the pha- 
risees of old, takes away the key of knowledge, by depriving the 
laity of the word of God : — 

" Rule IV. — Inasmuch as it is manifest from experience, that if 
the holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately 
allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause more evil than 
good to arise from it, it is, on this point, referred to the judgment of 
the bishops or inquisitors, who may, by the advice of the priest or con- 
fessor, permit the reading of the Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue 
by Catholic authors, to those persons whose faith and piety, they appre- 
hend, will be augmented, and not injured by it ; and this permission 
they must have in writing. But if any one shall have the presump- 
tion to read or possess it without such written permission, he shall not 
receive absolution until he have first delivered up such Bible to the 
ordinary. Booksellers, however, who shall sell or otherwise dispose 
of Bibles in the vulgar tongue, to any person not having such permis- 
sion, shall forfeit the value of the books, to be applied by the bishop 
to some pious use; and be subjected to such other penalties as the bishop 
shall judge proper, according to the quality of the offence. But re- 
gulars shall neither read nor purchase such Bibles without a special 
licence from their superiors."^ 



* An accurate analysis of the proceedings of each session of the Tridentine 
assembly will be found in the Rev. J. Mendham's "Memoirs of the Council 
of Trent, principally derived from manuscript and unpublished Records." 
London, 1834, 8vo. 

■f A full account of the expurgatory and prohibitory indexes of the Romish 
Church will be found in Mr. Mendham's " Literary Policy of the Church of 
Rome, exhibited in an Account of her Damnatory Catalogues or Indexes 
(second edition, London, 1830. 8vo.) ; and in his " Index of Prohibited Books 
bycommandof the present Pope, Gregory XVL, in 1835. London, 1840." 8vo. 
We may add, that another edition of the Roman Index (from which our quota- 
tions are made) was published at Rome in 1841. 

t " Regula IV. — Cum experimento manifestum est, si sacra Biblia vulgari 
lingua passim sine discrimine permittantur, plus inde, ob hominum temeritatem, 
detrimenti, quam utilitatis oriri ; hac in parte judicio episcopi aut inquisitoris 
stetur, ut cum consilio parochi, aut confessarii, Bibliorum a catholicis aucto- 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



7 



That part of the preceding rule, which allowed " the reading 
of the Bible translated into the vulgar tongue by Catholic au- 
thors," was qualified by the following proviso of Benedict XIV. : 
" But if versions of this kind of books in the vulgar tongue are 
approved by the apostolic see, or are edited with annotations 
drawn from the holy fathers of the Church, or from learned 
and Catholic men, they are allowed."* Liberal, however, as 
this proviso seems, real effect it has none. The slightest reflec- 
tion upon its conditions will at once convince the reader that, 
though it might suit the pontiff to make a demonstration of 
the semblance of liberality, yet the reins were kept in his 
hands as effectually as ever. Let any unwelcome application 
be made for a license ; and here are the conditions as strait, 
as numerous, and as dependent on interpretation as could be 
desired. No such thing as the simple word of God, " which is 
able to make us wise unto salvation," is to be permitted ! 

" Rule VII. — Books professedly treating of lascivious or obscene 

subjects, or narrating or teaching them, are utterly prohibited ; 

and those who possess them shall be severely punished by the bishop. 
But works of antiquity, written by the heathens, are permitted to be 
read, on account of the elegance and propriety of the language ; though 
on no account shall they be suffered to be read by young persons."t 

The reader will not fail to observe the easy virtue of Rome 
in thus giving permission for the reading of " obscene works 
of antiquity, on account of the elegance and propriety of the 
language ;" while the infinitely purer morality of the Scriptures 
is prohibited to be read, because, forsooth, if " the holy Bible, 



ribus versorum lectionem in vulgari lingua eis concedere possit, quos intel- 
lexerint ex hujusmodi lectione non damnum, sed fidei atque pietatis augmen- 
tum, capere posse; quam facultatem in seriptis habeant. 

" Qui autem absque tali facultate ea legere, aut habere praesumpserit, nisi 
prius Bibliis ordinario redditis, peccatorum absolutionem percipere non possit. 

" Bibliopolae vero, qui praedictam facultatem non habenti Biblia idiomate vul- 
gari conscripta vendiderint, vel alio quo vis modo concesserint, librorum pretium, 
in usus pios ab episcopo convertendurh, amittant; aliisque poenis pro delicti 
qualitate, ejusdem episcopi arbitrio, subjaceant. Regulares vero, non nisi facul- 
tate a praelatis suis habita, ea legere aut emere possint." — Page x. of " Index 
Librorum Prohibitorum sanctissimi Domini nostri Gregorii XVI. Pontificis 
Maximi jussueditus. Roma?, mjdcccxli. Ex Typographia Reverendae Camerae 
Apostolicae. Cum Summi Pontificis privilegio." 8vo. 

* " Quodsi hujusmodi librorun versiones vulgari lingua fuerint ab apostolica 
sede approbate, aut editae cum annotationibus desumptis ex Sanctis ecclesia 
patribus, vel ex doctis catbolicisque viris, conceduntur. Decret. Sacr. Con- 
aregationis Ind. 13 Junii, 1151 " (Index Librorum Prohibitorum, p. xv. Romae. 
1841). 

f " Regltla VII. — Libri qui res lascivas seu obscenas ex professo tractant, 

omnino prohibentur; et qui eos habuerint severe ab episcopis puniantur. 

Antiqui vero, ab ethnicis conscripti, propter sermonis elegantiam et proprie- 
tatem, permittantur : nulla tamen ratione pueris praelegendierunt." (Ibid, p. xi.) 



8 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately allowed 
to every one, the temerity of men will cause more evil than 
good to arise from it ! ! !" With as much reason might men 
be prohibited from eating or drinking, for fear they should 
abuse that liberty. 

ei Finally, it is enjoined on all the faithful, that no one presume to 
keep or read any books contrary to these rules, or prohibited by this 
index. But if any one read or keep any books composed by heretics, 
or the writings of any author suspected of heresy, or false doctrine, he 
shall instantly incur the sentence of excommunication ; and those who 
read or keep works interdicted on another account, besides the mortal 
sin committed, shall be severely punished at the will of the bishops."* 

In addition to the ten rules of the index, from which the 
preceding passages are cited, there are decrees respecting pro- 
hibited books, not specially named in the index. In these de- 
crees, besides forms of prayer, calendars, martyrologies, necro- 
logies, poems, catechisms, and other elementary tracts on the 
doctrines of the Reformed or Protestant Churches, it is ordered 
that " all Bibles printed by Protestants, or enlarged by them 
with notes, arguments, summaries, scholia, and indexes," and 
also " metrical versions of the Bible and parts thereof," are 
to be reckoned among prohibited books.! 

Such is the universal law of the Romish Church in pro- 
hibiting the reading of the holy Scriptures : and how steadily 
she continues to act upon it, will be manifest from a brief re- 
view of the bulls and encyclical (or circular) letters of later 
Popes. 

In the year 1671 the learned and pious Jansenist, Pasquier 
Quesnel, published a French translation of the New Testa- 
ment, accompanied with excellent devout and practical anno- 
tations, which passed through numerous editions. Alarmed 
at the success of this work, which had produced a change in 
the minds of many in favour of the doctrines of Jansenius, 
the Jesuits prevailed on Louis XIV. to solicit its condemna- 



* " Ad extremum vero omnibus fidelibus praecipitur, ne quis audeat contra 
harum regularum prsescriptum, aut hujus indicis prohibitionem, libros aliquos 
legere aut habere. 

" Quod si quis libros haereticorum, vel hujus auctoris scripta, ob hsaresim, vel 
ob falsi dogmatis suspicionem damnata, atque prohibita, legerit, sive habuerit, 
statim in excommunicationis sententiam incurrat. 

" Qui vero libros alio nomine interdictos legerit, aut habuerit, praeter peccati 
mortalis reatum, quo afficitur, judicio episcoporum severe puniatur." (Ibid, 
p. xiv.) 

f " 3. Biblia sacra eorum opera impressa, vel eorundem annotationibus ar- 
guments, summariis, scholiis et indicibus aucta. 

"4. Biblia sacra et eorum partes ab iisdem metrice conscripta." (Ibid, p. xli.) 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 9 



tion at the Court of Rome. Accordingly, Pope Clement XL, 
on the 8th of September, 1713, issued the famous bull or con- 
stitution Unigenitus* (so called from the first three words, 
" Unigenitus Dei films" ) ; in which Quesnel's New Testament 
was condemned, and one hundred and one propositions ex- 
tracted from the notes were selected for condemnation. The 
six following relate to the reading of the Scriptures : — 

80. " The reading of the sacred Scripture is for all. 

81. " The obscurity of the sacred word of God is no reason for 
laymen to dispense themselves from reading it. 

82. " The Lord's day ought to be sanctified by Christians for reading 
works of piety, and, above all, of the sacred Scriptures. It is damnable 
to wish to withdraw a Christian from this reading. 

83. " It is an illusion to persuade oneself that a knowledge of the 
mysteries of religion is not to be communicated to women by the 
reading of the sacred book. Not from the simplicity of women, but 
from the proud science of men, has the abuse of the Scriptures arisen, 
and heresies have been produced. 

84. " To take away the New Testament from the hands of Chris- 
tians, or to shut it up from them, by taking from them the means of 
understanding it, is to close the mouth of Christ to them. 

85. " To interdict from Christians the reading of the sacred Scrip- 
ture, particularly of the Gospel, is to interdict the use of the light from 
the sons of light, and to cause that they should suffer some species of 
excommunication. "f 

Any candid reader would conclude that the doctrine com- 
prised in these propositions was in perfect accordance with the 
letter and spirit of the Gospel. They were, however, condemned 
by the Pope, and all persons were prohibited, on pain of eccle- 
siastical censures and other punishments, from teaching, de- 



* Mosheim Eccl. His. Cent. 18, § x. vol. vi. p. 12. 

+ 80. " Lectio sacrae Scripturas est pro omnibus. 

81. " Obscuritas sancti verbi Dei, non est laicis ratio dispensandi seipsos ab 
ejus lectione. 

82. " Dies Dominicus a Christianis debet sanctificari lectionibus pietatis, et 
super omnia sanctarum Scripturarum. Damnosum est velle Christianum ab 
hac lectione retrahere. 

83. " Est illusio sibi persuadere, quod notitia mysteriorum religionis non de- 
beat communicari fGeminis lectione sacrorum Librorum. Non ex foeminarum 
simplicitate, sed ex superba virorum scientia ortus est Scripturarum abusus, et 
natae sunt heereses. 

84. " Abripere e Christianorum manibus novum Testamentum, seu eis illud 
clausum tenere, auferendo eis modum illud intelligendi, est illis Christi os 
obturare. 

85. " Interdicere Christianis lectionem sacrse Scriptural prsesertim Evangelii, 
est interdicere usum luminis filiis luc-is, et facere ut patiantur speciem quan- 
dam excommunicationis. " — Cocquelines, Bullarium, Tom. xi. Pars i., p. 343, 
col. 2. Romee, 1735, folio. 



10 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



fending, or publishing them, or even to treat of them in dispu- 
tation, publicly or privately, unless it were to impugn them. 
This bull affords a full and satisfactory answer to the false 
assertions of Romanists, that the Scriptures are not shut up 
from the people. In most of the states and kingdoms of the 
Roman obedience it was submissively received : at first, in- 
deed, it met with great opposition in France ; but at length 
the majority of the Gallican clergy received it, and finally it 
was confirmed by a royal ordinance. It is in full force in 
Ireland* 

Ninety years after the issuing of this bull, the British and 
Foreign Bible Society was instituted at London, in 1804, for 
the single and benevolent object of promoting a wider circu- 
lation of the holy Scriptures, without note or comment, in the 
British dominions, as well as in other countries, whether 
Christian, Mohammedan, or Pagan ; and its proceedings, as 
might be expected, called forth the bitter denunciations of 
successive Roman Pontiffs. 

Pius VII. first issued a rescript to the Archbishop of Gnesn, 
primate of Poland, dated June 29, 1816: in which he de- 
nounced the circulation of the unadulterated Scriptures of 
truth, without note or comment, as a " crafty device by which 
the foundations of religion are undermined," and a "de- 
filement of the faith most imminently dangerous to souls." 
Having exhorted the archbishop to execute with the utmost 
earnestness whatever he can achieve by power, provide for by 
counsel, or effect by authority, to prevent the circulation of the 
Scriptures, Pius VII. reminds him of his episcopal duty, first of 
all, to expose the wickedness of this nefarious scheme (the cir- 
culation of the Bible) to the view of the faithful : — 

" And openly to publish the same, according to the rales prescribed 
by the Church, with all that erudition and wisdom in which you excel ; 
namely, ' That Bibles printed by heretics are numbered among prohi- 
bited books, agreeably to the rules of the Index (No. II. and III.) ; 
for it is evident from experience, that the holy Scriptures, when pub- 
lished in the vulgar tongue, have, through the temerity of men, pro- 
duced more harm than benefit ;' (Rule IV.) And this is the rather 
to be dreaded in times so depraved, when our holy religion is assailed 
from every quarter with great cunning and effort, and the most grievous 
wounds are inflicted on the Church. It is, therefore, necessary to ad- 
here to the salutary decree of the congregation of the Index (June 13th, 
1757) ; that no versions of the Bible in the vulgar tongue be permitted, 



* Evidence of Dr. Murray, the titular Romish Archbishop of Dublin, before 
the House of Commons in 1825. (Report, p. 647). 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture, 



11 



except such as are approved by the Apostolic See, or published with 
annotations extracted from the writings of the holy fathers of the 
Church." * 

Not many months after the elate of the preceding rescript, 
the same pontiff, on the 3rd of September, 1816, addressed an 
objurgatory Brief to the Archbishop of Mohileff or Mohilow, 
the Romish metropolitan of Russia, who had been guilty of the 
heinous crime (heinous in the judgment of Rome) of authoriz- 
ing and exhorting the people committed to his care to procure 
modern versions of the Scriptures, or to accept them when 
offered, and attentively to peruse them. In this Brief, Pius VII. 
tells him that he ought to have kept in view what preceding 
Popes had always prescribed, viz. " That if the holy Bible in 
the vulgar tongue was permitted everywhere without discri- 
mination, more injury than benefit would thence arise." 

After reciting the constitutions of his predecessors, and par- 
ticularly the constitution " Unigenitus," and further reprehend- 
ing the good prelate for omitting to enforce the traditions of the 
Church, Pius VII. concludes his denunciation of the Bible by 
telling him that he " should sincerely and plainly teach that 
the Christian faith and doctrine, as well dogmatical as moral, 
are contained not in the Scriptures only, but also in the tra- 
ditions of the Catholic Church ; and that it belongs to the 
Church herself alone to interpret each of them."t 

In 1824, on the accession of Leo XII. to the pontificate, he 
issued an Encyclical Letter to all the patriarchs, primates, arch- 
bishops, and bishops, of the Roman obedience, dated May 3rd ; 
in which he urges them, by all means in their power, to keep 
the people from reading the Scriptures ; and further gives his 
sanction to the bulls of his predecessors against the circulation 
and reading of the Word of God, which he audaciously termed 
the " gospel of the devil." 

" You are not ignorant," he says, " venerable brethren, that a 
society, commonly called the Bible Society, is boldly stalking 
throughout the world ; which, contemning the traditions of the holy 
fathers, and contrary to the well-known decree of the Council of 
Trent, is lending all its strength, and by every means, to translate 
the Bible in the vulgar languages of all nations, or rather to pervert 
it. Whence it is greatly to be feared lest, as in some versions already 
known, so also in others, by a perverse interpretation, instead of the 
Gospel of Christ, it should become the gospel of man, or, what is worse, 
the gospel of the devil. 



* Blair's Letters on the " Revival of Popery," pp. 129, 130. 
f Ibid., pp. 132-136. The entire brief of Pope Pius VII. is printed in pp. 
131-137. 



12 



Popery theJEnemy of Scripture, 



" Many of our predecessors have issued constitutions for the averting 
of this pest ; and, in these last times, Pius VII., of holy memory, sent 
two briefs, one to Ignatius, Archbishop of Gnesn, and to Stanislaus, 
Archbishop of Mohilow : in which are found many things both accu- 
rately and wisely extracted from the divine Scriptures and from tra- 
dition, to show how noxious this very crafty invention is to faith and 
morals. 

" We also, venerable brethren, in the discharge of our apostolical 
office, exhort you to remove your flocks, by every means, from these 
deadly pastures. Reprove, beseech, be instant in season and out of 
season, in all patience and doctrine, that your faithful [souls], ad- 
hering strictly to the rules of our congregation of the Index, may per- 
suade themselves that, if the holy Bible in the vulgar tongue be in- 
discriminately permitted everywhere, more good than evil will arise 
from it, in consequence of the temerity of men."* 

The latest fulmination against the Scriptures was hurled by 
the present Pontiff, Gregory XVI., in a bull dated so recently 
as the day after the nones of May (that is, May 8th), 1844. 
Having denounced the circulation of the Scriptures by the 
Bible Societies, and referred to the decrees of the Council of 
Trent, as well as to the prohibitions of preceding Popes against 
reading the Scriptures, concluding with the Encyclical Letter 
of Leo XII. last cited, he thus proceeds : — 

" Shortly afterwards, our immediate predecessor, Pius VIII., of happy 
memory, confirmed their condemnation by his circular letter of May 24, 
1829. We, in short, who succeeded them, notwithstanding our great 
un worthiness, have not ceased to be solicitous on this subject, and have 
especially studied to bring to the recollection of the faithful the several 
rules which have been successively laid down with regard to the vulgar 
versions of the holy books."f 

The Christian League, at New York, is next denounced in 
no measured terms : and all the decrees of preceding Popes 



* " Non vos latet, VV. FF„ societatem quandam, dictam vulgo biblicam, per 
totum orbem audacter vagari, quae spretis SS. Patrum traditionibus, et contra 
notissimum Tridentini concilii decretum, in idcollatis viribus ac modis omnibus 
intendit, ut in vulgares linguas nationum omnium sacra vertantur, vel potius 
pervertantur Biblia. Ex quo valde pertimescendum est, ne, sicut in aliquibus 
jam notis, ita et in caeteris, interpretatione perversa de Evangelio Christi 
hominis fiat Evangelium, aut, quod pejus est, diaboli. 

" Nos quoque pro apostolico nostro munere hortamur vos, VV. FF., ut gregem 
vestrum a lethii'eris hisce pascuis amovere omnimode satagatis. Arguite, 
obsecrate, instate opportune, importune, in omni patientia, et doctrina, ut 
fideles vestri regulis nostra Indicis congregationis adamussim inherences sibi 
persuadeant, si sacra Biblia vulgari lingua passim sine discrimine permittantur, 
plus inde ob hominum temeritatem detrimenti quam utilitatis oriri." — Lettre 
Encyclique de Notre Saint Pere le Pape Leon XII Paris : Chez Adrian Le 
Clerc, imprimeur de N. S. P. le Pape, &c. 1824. pp. 20, 22. 

f Encyclical Letter of Gregory XVI. in the English Churchman, of June 20, 
1844, p. 386. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture, 



against the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue are declared to be 
confirmed and renewed : — 

" Many precise advices and documents teach us that a vast number 
of members of sects in New York, in America, at one of their meet- 
ings, held on the 4th of June, last year, have formed a new association, 
which will take the name of the 'Christian League (Foederis Christiani)' 
—a league composed of individuals of every nation, and which is to be 
further increased in numbers by other auxiliary societies, all having 
the same object, viz., to propagate amongst Italians, and especially 
Romans, the principles of Christian liberty, or rather an insane in- 
difference to all religion. These, indeed, confess that the Roman 
institutions, as well as Italian, had, in by-gone times, so much influence 
that nothing great was done in the world but had its origin in our 
august city. Not that they ascribe the fact to the Pontifical See, 
which was then founded by the disposition of God himself, but verily 
to some remains of the old Roman power,, subsequently usurped, as 
they say, by our predecessors, who succeeded to that power. 

" This is why, determined to afford to all people liberty of con- 
science (or rather, it should be said, liberty to err), from which, 
according to their theory, must flow, as from an inexhaustible source, 
public prosperity and political liberty, they think they should, before 
all things, win over the inhabitants of Rome and Italy, in order to 
avail themselves afterwards of their example and aid in regard to other 
countries. 

" They hope to attain this result easily by favour of the Italians 
scattered over the world. They flatter themselves that on returning 
in large numbers to their country, and bearing with them whether the 
exaltation of novelty, corruption of manners, or the excitement of 
want, they would hardly hesitate to affiliate themselves to the League, 
and at least second it through venality. This society strains every 
nerve to introduce amongst them, by means of individuals collected 
from all parts, corrupt and vulgar Bibles, and to scatter them secretly 
amongst the faithful. At the same time, their intention is to dissemi- 
nate worse books still, or tracts designed to withdraw from the minds 
of their readers all respect for the Church and the Holy See. These 
books and tracts have been composed in Italian, or translated into 
Italian from other languages, with the aid of Italians themselves ; and 
amongst these books should be particularly cited 4 The History of the 
Reformation,' by Merle d'Aubigny, and 4 Calendar of the Reformation 
in Italy' ( l Fastes de la Reforme en ItalieJJ by Jean Cric,"* that is 
M'Crie.f 

<f Scarcely were we made aware of these facts but we were pro- 

* Encyclical Letter of Gregory XVI. in the English Churchman, of June 20, 
1844, p. 386. 

t In the Index of Prohibited Books, Dr. M'Crie's name is somewhat more 
accurately printed : — " Maccrie, Thomas. Istoriadel Progresso e dell'Estinzione 
della Riforma in Italia, nel secolo sedicesimo, tradotto dall'Inglese. Deer. 22, 
Septembris 1, 1836."— Index Librorum Prohibitorum, p. 235. Rome, 1841, 



14 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture* 



foundly grieved on reflecting upon the danger which threatened, not 
only remote countries, but the very centre of unity itself; and we have 
been anxious to defend religion against the like manoeuvres. * * * 

" Wherefore, having consulted some of the cardinals of the holy 
Roman Church, after having duly examined with them everything, 
and listened to their advice, we have decided, venerable brothers, on 
addressing you this letter, by which we again condemn the Bible So- 
cieties, reproved long ago by our predecessors ; and by virtue of the 
supreme authority of our apostleship, we reprove by name and con- 
demn the aforesaid society called the Christian League, formed last 
year at New York, together with every other society associated with 
it, or which may become so. 

" Let all know, then, the enormity of the sin against God and the 
Church, which they are guilty of, who dare to associate themselves with 
any of these societies, or abet them in any way. Moreover, we con- 
firm and renew the decrees recited above, delivered in former times by 
apostolic authority, against the publication, distribution, reading, and 
possession of books of the holy Scriptures translated into the vulgar 
tongue. With reference to the works of whatsoever writer, we call to 
mind the observance of the general rules and decrees of our predeces- 
sors, to be found prefixed to the Index of prohibited books ; and we 
invite the faithful to be upon their guard, not only against the books 
named in the Index, but also against those comprised in the general 
prescriptions. 

" As for yourselves, my venerable brethren, called as you are to 
divide our solicitude, we recommend you earnestly in the Lord to an- 
nounce and proclaim, in convenient time and place, to the people con- 
fided to your care, these apostolic orders, and to labour carefully to 
separate the faithful sheep from the contagion of the Christian League 
— from those who have become its auxiliaries, no less than those who 
belong to other Bible Societies, and from all who have any com- 
munication with them. You are consequently enjoined to remove 
from the hands of the faithful alike the Bibles, in the vulgar tongue, 
which may have been printed contrary to the decrees above-mentioned 
of the Sovereign Pontiffs, and ever?/ book proscribed and condemned, 
and to see that they learn, through your admonition and authority, 
what pasturages are salutary, and what pernicious and mortal."* 

"We are not surprised that M. Merle d'Aubigne's " History 
of the Reformation," and Dr. M'Crie's " History of the Re- 
formation in Italy," should be thus honoured with the bitter 
denunciations of Gregory XVI., by whom they have been pro- 
scribed and condemned; for they contain such a development 
of the principles and proceedings of the Romish Church ; and 
Dr. M'Crie's History, in particular, contains such a delineation 
of the atrocious means resorted to for the extinction of the Re- 
formation — that is, of pure and undefiled religion — in Italy ; as 



* Encyclical Letter, English Churchman, p. 386, 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



15 



would most completely open the eyes of the Italians generally, 
and especially of the " citizens of his own city," to the unscrip- 
tural and antiscriptural tenets and practices of the Popes and 
of Papal emissaries and agents. Unable to refute the statements 
of those historians, who have based their narratives upon in- 
disputable authorities and documents, Gregory XVI. has de- 
nounced and prohibited them : just as his predecessors, Alex- 
ander VIII. and Innocent XII., prohibited Bishop Burnet's 
" History of the Reformation in England,"* in which we have 
such important details respecting the abominations of Popery at 
the time the Reformation commenced in this country, and also 
of the cruelties perpetrated on the defenceless Protestants 
during the sanguinary reign of Mary. 

To the authoritative declarations of successive Popes, above 
given, against the circulation and free reading of the Scriptures, 
we feel that it is perfectly unnecessary for us to add a single 
reflection. They breathe, throughout, a determined and un- 
mitigated spirit of hatred to the Bible ; and no wonder — " for 
if the blessed truths of that divine book were once to become 
familiar to the ears and hearts of the poor, to whom that 
Gospel was preached, they would soon find out that they had 
long been following blind guides, who have " made the com- 
mandment of God of none effect by their vain traditions." 
Where, however, the Scriptures in the vulgar tongue are in 
the hands of a " people who know the joyful sound" of the 
Gospel, and who are devoutly grateful for that inestimable 
boon ; there the emissaries of Popery cannot make any progress 
in proselyting. Of this important and delightful fact we have 
a signal illustration in the very ancient (we might say, primi- 
tive) Church of the Vaudois, and in the modern Christians of 
the island of Tahiti. The Vaudois have, all along, had the 
Scriptures in their hands. It was one of the charges made 
against them by their sanguinary Popish persecutors in the 
twelfth century, that they held that the text of the sacred 
Scriptures is to be received and believed in opposition to hu- 
man traditions and comments. To the Vaudois were the Pro- 
testants of France indebted for the first French version of the 
Bible, (generally called " Olivetan's Bible," from the name of 
its ostensible translator,) which bears the date of 1535, and 
which was printed at their expense. And, notwithstanding 
the many centuries of persecution and oppression which the 
Vaudois have endured, their venerable Church — like the bush 



* " Burnet Gilbert. Hiatoire de la Reformation de l'Eglise d'Angleterre, 
traduit de l'Anglois par M. de Rosemond, Deer. 20 Maii, 1690, et 21 Apr. 1693. 
—Index Librorum Prohibitorum. p. 53, Rome, 1841. 



16 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



on the rock of Horeb — still subsists, burning, yet unconsumed. 
In the island of Tahiti, through the divine blessing upon 
the labours of the missionaries of the London Missionary So- 
ciety, the inhabitants, having experienced " the Gospel " to be 
" the power of God unto salvation," — thirty years since re- 
nounced idolatry, with all its attendant abominations : and, 
having received from the missionaries the precious gift of the 
holy Scriptures in their native language, they have continued, 
and still continue, steadfast in the faith of Christ, unmoved by 
the seductive efforts of the Jesuit missionaries of Rome, who 
accompanied the French, when they illegally possessed them- 
selves of the island of Tahiti in the year 1842. 

We will now direct the attention of our readers to a few of 
the practical results of all these Papal denunciations against 
the unadulterated and canonical books of the holy Scriptures, 
which Leo XII. audaciously termed " deadly pastures," and 
" the gospel of the devil." 

At the present day, indeed, in Protestant countries where 
the sacerdotal despotism of Rome is held in check, the fourth 
rule of the Index of Prohibited Books, on which (as our readers 
will have seen) so many pontiffs dwell with fond delight, is not 
and cannot be enforced to the very letter; but wherever Popery 
is absolutely dominant, the free circulation of the Bible is pro- 
hibited, and consequently the great mass of the people are 
destitute of the Word of Life. 

In all the dominions of the Emperor of Austria, for in- 
stance, Bibles — whether in Hebrew or in the vulgar tongue — 
are prohibited with such inflexible rigour, that, in 1839, when 
two members of the deputation from the Church of Scotland 
arrived at Brody, in Austrian Poland, on a benevolent mission 
of enquiry into the religious and moral condition of the Jews, 
every book, in whatever language, was taken from them, " even 
(they state) our Hebrciu and English Bibles ; and we were 
left the alternative of allowing them to be sent to Lemberg, to 
be examined by the censor there, and waiting for his opinion 
of their orthodoxy, or of at once allowing ourselves to be de- 
prived of their use, until we should be beyond the dominions 
of Austria. On our preferring the latter alternative, they 
agreed to seal up our books in a parcel, and send them on to 
Cracow, to await our arrival. When we pleaded to be allowed 
to retain our English Bibles, the only answer we received was, 
" It is not alloived in Austria"* It was from the Austrian 



* " Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scot- 
land in 1839," p. 458. Edinburgh, 1844. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture,, 



17 



province of Tyrol that six hundred Protestant Tyrolese were 
compelled to expatriate themselves in 1837, having been led 
to renounce the errors of Popery by the reading of the Bible 
and other religious books which had been carried into that 
country.* 

In Fraxce, recourse has, on various occasions, been had to 
the pulpit and the press, for the purpose of decrying the object 
and misrepresenting the motives of those who are employed 
in the benevolent work of circulating the holy Scriptures; 
but the reports of the British and Foreign Bible Society con- 
tain most gratifying intelligence that " the word of God is not 
bound." Not merely are individuals, but in many instances 
whole villages are renouncing the errors of Popery ; and the 
annually increasing diffusion of the Bible in that country only 
attests the futile hostility of the emissaries of Rome. 

In Belgium, every opposition which can well be conceived 
has for many years been made to the circulation of the holy 
Scriptures. The persons employed have been not merely 
reproached, insulted, and threatened, but mobs have been in- 
stigated to maltreat and injure them. Their books have been 
stolen or forcibly taken away, and some of them even torn to 
pieces or burnt before their eyes. Yet they have persevered 
in the prosecution of their labours of Christian love ; and not 
unfrequently have they been indebted for their personal safety 
to the presence and interference of the civil, and sometimes of 
the military, author ities.t It is not surprising that persons of 
inferior rank should look on this good work with an evil eye, 
when a prelate of the Romish Church in that country, the 
Bishop of Bruges4 hesitates not to describe and denounce the 
British and Foreign Bible Society as " a society hostile to God 
and to the holy Church" — a society wirich would rob " his 
dear brethren of all that is most dear to them." Citing the 
Encyclical Letter of Leo XII. above quoted, the bishop proceeds 
to characterize the circulation of the unmutilated Scriptures 
as "the impious project of this anti-christian society, by which 

the world is inundated with heretical Bibles in which the 

perfidy of heretics has carried sacrilegious temerity to such an 
extent, as shamefully to mutilate the book of Daniel; nay, 
even to cut out whole books, as those of Tobit, Judith, the 



* The Zillerthalers, who had endured every possible annoyance and vexation 
from the Popish clergy for several years, found a hospitable asylum in the 
dominions of the King of Prussia, at Erdmannsdorf, in Upper Silesia. 

f Thirty-fourth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 30. 
Thirty-fifth Report, p. 35. Thirty-eighth Report, pp. 35, 36. 

$ In his mandement, or annual address for Lent, 1838, 

B 



18 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Barucli, and the Maccabees." 
The falsehood of this assertion is only equalled by its igno- 
rance. The editions of the Scriptures, thus audaciously de- 
nounced, comprise only " those canonical books of the Old and 
New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in 
the Church" (Art. VI.) : and the books asserted to be " shame- 
fully mutilated " are the apocryphal books, which were never 
recognized as canonical by the Jews (to whom were committed 
the oracles of God), nor by the primitive Christian Churches, 
nor by the modern Greek Church, nor by any general council ; 
until the Council of Trent, in utter disregard of truth calling 
itself oecumenical or general, in the sixteenth century, pro- 
nounced them to be " holy and canonical," with an anathema 
against any one who should not receive all these apocryphal 
books.* 

"It is not" (the Bishop of Bruges continues) "that the 
Church wishes to forbid altogether the reading of the holy 
Scriptures, in the vulgar tongue, to the simple and faithful. 
Such is not — such never was — the intention of this good mo- 
ther ; but she holds heretical Bibles in abhorrence, and utterly 
detests them. And with regard to other translations, the 
Church only permits the reading of them, where ' the transla- 
tions are approved by the holy see, or published with the notes 
of the holy fathers, or of some Catholic doctors.' "t 

Our surprise at the hostility to the Bible in Belgium will 
cease, when it is known that Popery flourishes in that country 
as in a hot-bed. Rome itself can scarcely " vie with it in 
blind and active zeal for all that is connected with the in- 
terests of that awful system ; and, as may be expected, Home 
shows itself in all its unblushing effrontery. Money is lavished 
on the building and adorning of churches, and shrines, and 
virgins. The Virgin Mary is exalted and worshipped as divine, 
and receives more homage than Christ. More offerings are 
made to her than to him ; more confidence is placed in her in- 
tercession than in that of the Saviour !"| The following blas- 
phemous address of the Lord's Prayer to the blessed Virgin is 
translated from a card sold in the shops at Brussels, illumi- 
nated with gold and various colours : — 
« A MARIE. 

" NOTRE MERE QUI ETES AUX CIEUX. 

" Notre mere qui etes aux cieux, Marie, que votre nom soit belli 
jamais, que votre amour vienne a tous les coeurs, que vos desirs s'ac- 

* Canones Cone. Trid., Sess. iv. Decretum de Canonicis Scripturis. 

f Thirty-fourth Report of the Bible Society, pp. xxx., xxxi. 

$ Appeal of the Belgian Evangelical Society for 1 843. [Brussels], 1843 . 2. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



19 



complissent en la tcrre comrae au ciel ; donnez nous aujourd'lmi la 
grace et la misericorde, donnez nous le pardon de nos fautes, comme 
nous l'esperons de votre bonte sans bornes ; et ne nous laissez plus suc- 
comber a la tentation, mais delivrez nous du mal. Ainsi soit-il."* 

That is : — 

"TO MARY. 

" OUR MOTHER WHO ARE IN HEAVEN. 

" Our mother who are in heaven, Mary, blessed be your name 
for ever ; let your love come to all our hearts, let your desires be ac- 
complished on earth as in heaven ; give us this day grace and mercy ; 
give us the pardon of all our faults., as we hope it from your unbounded 
goodness ; and let us no more yield to temptation, but deliver us from 
evil. Amen." 

In Portugal, the Scriptures are unknown among the pea- 
santry.! In SPxiiN, the Bible is a prohibited book, unless it be 
accompanied with notes from fathers and Romish divines : and 
the learned Felix Torres Amat, Bishop of Astorga, could not 
obtain permission from the congregation of the Index at Rome 
for publishing his Spanish version of the Scriptures, with notes, 
but on the condition " that he should show his readers that 
the reading of the Bible is not necessary to salvation" This con- 
dition he subsequently fulfilled " by duly instructing the rea- 
ders of his second edition that they might go to heaven without 
reading the word of God."J So recently as the year 1838, the 
circulation of the Gospel of St. Luke, which Mr. Borrow had 
translated into the dialect of the Gitanos, or Spanish gypsies (a 
numerous and degraded race), was prohibited by an ordonnance 
of the Spanish Government : as also was the circulation of the 

* Appeal of the Belgian Evangelical Society for 1843, p. 3. On Ascension- 
day (May 25tb), 1843, a splendid crown, composed of ninety ounces of pure 
gold, and containing 593 precious stones and 377 fine pearls, the workmanship 
of which alone cost 280/. sterling, was presented to a "miraculous image of the 
Virgin," invoked as the Mother of Mercy. This image was presented with 
all that imposing pomp and splendour with which Rome knows so well 
how to fascinate the senses, in the presence of the King and Queen of 
the Belgians, their son, the Duke of Brabant, and a vast multitude of their 
subjects. "The circle of the diadem bore an inscription — ' Marice Matri 
Misericordice,' in azure letters, because" [as the editor of the Journal de 
Bruxelles, of May 31st, 1843, affirmed] " Mary is Queen of heaven by the al- 
mighty power of God. The emblems are taken from different royal and im- 
perial crowns, to show that Mary's crown includes and far surpasses them all. 
On the top of the four arches (after the royal crown) is an orb surmounted by 
the sign of redemption, because the Mother of the Saviour reigns by this sign 
of salvation ! ! !" This golden-crowned image of the Virgin held in her arm an 
image of Christ as a child; on whose head was a small silver crown. But no 
offering was made to the child. 

f Borrow's " Bible in Spain " (Home and Colonial Library, vol. i. p. 6). 

J: Rule's " Memoir of a Mission to Gibraltar," p. 70. London, 1844. 



20 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



same Gospel in the Spanish Basque dialect, which is spoken 
in the provinces of Guipuscoa and Biscay. 

In Italy, the Virgin Mary is the chief object of devout 
veneration. " Thousands of facts might be adduced to show 
that the Virgin Mary, in the popular apprehension, is a great 
dressed up doll ; and our Lord Jesus Christ a great baby 

seated in her lap, and under the tutelage of his mother • 

If a beggar in the street asks alms, it is for the love of the 
Virgin. If a man fractures his arm, or breaks his leg, or falls 
into a river without being drowned, you see his votive offering 
decorating the altar of the Virgin, acknowledging that he has 
been cured or saved by her powerful intercession with her 
child. Our Lord is a King under age ; his mother, a queen- 
egent."* Where the unscriptural and antiscriptural worship 
of the Virgin Mary prevails to such an extent as it does in 
Italy, it is no wonder that the Bible in the vulgar tongue is a 
proscribed book to the people. At Nice, for instance, in the 
dominions of the King of Sardinia, in 1837, twenty-four per- 
sons were imprisoned by order of the Sardinian Government, 
for the heinous crime of having in their possession the Bible, 
and some other religious books.! Similar restrictions against 
the Bible are in force at Leghorn. The deputation from the 
Church of Scotland for enquiring into the religious condition 
of the Jews, " hearing that Leghorn was a free port, thought 
that it might be free to receive the Gospel:" accordingly, 
without reserve, they gave tracts to the porters who carried 
their luggage, and to some by-standers. Scarcely, however, 
had an hour elapsed before their box of books and tracts, and 
their bag of Hebrew books, were sealed up and carried off by 
an officer, by whom they were sent to the censor at Florence 
for his examination. As might be expected, they were con- 
demned by him. Just before their departure from Leghorn, 
many of their tracts were restored to them : " but all the copies 
of Dr. Keith's work on prophecy were detained, because it con- 
tained interpretations opposed to those of the Church of Rome." 
The deputation " afterwards learned that a sentence of -perpetual 
banishment from Tuscany had been pronounced against them ; 
a sentence" (they remark) they " could easily bear, but one 
that proves Popery to be still the silencer of the witnesses and 
the deadly enemy of the truth." j 



* Dr. Jarvis's " No Union with Rome," p. 38. Hartford [Connecticut]. 
]843. 8vo. 

-j- Archives du Christianisme, Sept. 9, 1837, p. 136. 

+ " Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scot- 
land, inl839," pp, 20, 2], 31. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture, 



21 



At Rome, " the Bible is a strange and rare book. The only 
edition of it authorized to be sold there is in fifteen large vo- 
lumes, which are filled with Popish commentaries. Of course 
none but the rich can purchase a copy of the sacred Scriptures ; 
indeed, very few of the common people there know what we 
mean by the Bible."* It cannot, then, excite surprise that 
" the Bible is a strange and rare book" at Rome ; for where 
" the system of the Roman communion is fully acted upon, the 
worship of the Virgin has almost superseded that of the 
Trinity."! In fact, not one edition of the New Testament in 
the original Greek has ever issued from the Roman, or even 
Italian, press. Cardinal Bellarmine, indeed, is said to have 
been engaged by saint Pius V. to superintend the printing of 
an authentic and faithful edition of the New Testament in 
Greek ; but when it was on the point of performance, the Pope 
changed his mind.j After the lapse of about two hundred and 
fifty years, during the pontificate of Pius VI., the abate Spo- 
letti contemplated the publication of the Vatican manuscript, 
for which purpose he applied to the Pope. No public permission 
was ever given: and though the private judgment of Pius at first 
was not unfavourable to the undertaking, yet he was induced 
to prevent the execution of Spoletti's design by the represen- 
tations of Father Mamachi, master of the sacred apostolical 
palace, under the pretence that the Codex Vaticanus differed 
from the Vulgate, and might, therefore, if made known to the 
public, be prejudicial to the interests of the Christian religion ! 
Spoletti presented a second memorial to the Pope, in which 
he answered the objections of Mamachi, but the powers of the 
Inquisition prevailed against arguments which had no other 
support than sound reason. He was, therefore, obliged to 
abandon the design, since the private indulgence of the Pope 
would be no security against the vengeance of the Inquisition.^ 
In 1836, public curiosity was once more excited by the an- 

* Clarke's "Glimpses of the Old World," vol. i. p. 396. " In Rome the Eng- 
lish are closely watched by the authorities ; and were any among them disco- 
vered seeking to propagate the Bible, they would be subjected to much annoy- 
ance." (Ciocci's " Narrative of Iniquities and Barbarities practised at Rome in 
the Nineteenth Century," p. 153). In pp. 67-79, he has related a painfully in- 
teresting anecdote of the treatment of some devout monks who ivished to read 
the Bible. 

f Dr. Jarvis's Preface, p. iv. , to the American edition of Hartwell Home's 
" Mariolatry. " Hartford [Connecticut]. 1844. 8vo. 

+ Bartoli, Vita del card. Bellarmino, p. 388, cited in Mendham's " Literary 
Policy of the Church of Rome, p." 77, note. 

§ Marsh's Translation of " Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament," 
vol. ii. part i. p. 181 ; Part ii. pp. 644, 645. Michaelis writes the abate's name 
Spoletti \ Dr. Wiseman, however, calls it Spaletti. 



v 



22 Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



nouncement, in various journals, that an edition of the Septua- 
gint version was in contemplation by Dr. (now cardinal) Mai ; 
and some statements were made of the progress of the work. 
That curiosity was yet further excited by the following intel- 
ligence, from the Diario Romano, under the date of March 1, 
1842, which was circulated throughout Europe by the various 
literary journals : — 

" The illustrious Cardinal Angelo Mai finished, after ten years' 
labour, an edition of the New Testament, with the variation of all the 
MSS. contained in the principal libraries of Rome and of the rest of 
Italy, and with numerous notes full of philological researches. The 
text taken by the cardinal for the basis of his edition is that of the 
celebrated MS. numbered 1209, in the library of the Vatican. This 
MS. dates up to the sixth century. At the suggestion of his eminence, 
the Roman Government has resolved to publish, at its own expense, a 
fac-simile of that manuscript, which is in golden letters (?) and in 
the continuous style of writing ; that is to say, the words are not sepa- 
rated by spaces. The celebrated engraver, Ruspi, has been ordered 
to engrave on copper this fac-simile, copies of which are to be trans- 
mitted - to all Christian Sovereigns."* 

The expectations naturally raised by this announcement 
have been disappointed. From private information lately re- 
ceived from Italy, we learn that no Greek New Testament, edited 
by Mai, has been published : and probably for the same reason 
which quashed the abate Spoletti's proposed edition of the 
Vatican manuscript, viz., that, as it differs from the Latin 
Vulgate, the publication of it might be " prejudicial to the in- 
terests of the Christian religion ;" that is, to the interests and 
designs of Popery. We shall not, however, be surprised, if 
at some future period it should transpire, that a considerable 
part (if not the whole) of the New Testament has been ac- 
tually printed, but that Mai has been obliged to suppress it. 

In Ireland, the opposition of the Romish bishops and 
priests to the circulation of the unadulterated Scriptures is 
matter of notoriety. 

The Romish archbishops and bishops, in giving publicity to 
the Encyclical Letter of Leo XII. (an extract of which is given 
in p. 11, supra), accompanied it with some "pastoral instruc- 
tions to all the faithful f in which they declared, that as the 
books distributed by the Bible Society, under the name of 
Bibles, or Testaments, or Tracts, 

" Treat of religion, and are not sanctioned by us, or by any compe- 



* The " Complete Catholic Directory, Almanac and Registry, for 1843." 
Dublin, (p. 147). 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



23 



tent authority in the Catholic QRomish] Church, the use, the perusal, 
or retaining of them is entirely and without any exception prohibited 
to you. And should any of them be in your possession, they are to 
be returned to the persons who may have bestowed them on you, or 
otherwise to be destroyed" 

With such truly pastoral instructions before them, it can- 
not excite surprise that numerous instances are on record 
of Bibles being committed to the flames under priestly in- 
fluence ; one of which (at Shinrone, in King's County,) was 
made the subject of a petition to the House of Commons in 
1834.* But, not to dwell on former instances of Bible burn- 
ing, the following extract from a sermon delivered by friar 
Jennings before Dr. M'Hale, the titular Romish Archbishop 
of Tuam, and several priests, will show the rancorous hatred 
of the Popish clergy there against the circulation and reading 
of the Bible:— 

" Any person who practises the reading of the Bible will inevitably 
fall into everlasting destruction. I would, therefore, my dear friends 
and followers, most earnestly beseech you, by the love that you bear to 
the Virgin Mary and to the saints — by the love that you bear to the 
dear priests, not to allow these Bible readers near your houses — not to 
speak to them when you meet them on the roads ; but put up your 
hands and bless yourselves, and pray to God and to the Virgin Mary 
to keep you from being contaminated by the poison of the Bible. The 
worst of all pestilences — the infectious pestilence of the Bible — will 
entail on yourselves and children the everlasting ruin of your souls. 
They who send their children to schools where the Scriptures are read, 
give their children bound in chains to the devil."f 

Will any Romanist, after this most explicit declaration, dare 
to assert that the Romish, ecclesiastics encourage the reading 
of the Bible ? When such sentiments as these are lauded by 
bishops and priests (for Mr. Jennings's philippic against the 
reading of the Scriptures is stated to have been greatly com- 
mended), can it excite surprise that the Bible should be de- 
stroyed wherever sacerdotal influence prevails ? The following 
is the most recent instance of destroying a portion of the Scrip- 
tures which has come to our knowledge : — 

" National Education. — In a national school not a hundred miles 
from Killarney, a little girl, one of the scholars, was so rash as to ex- 
hibit a little gilt Testament, which some perverting person had be- 
stowed upon her. The commotion excited was commensurate to the 
crime. The little offender was called forth, whipped before the eyes of 
her companions ; and the 6 gospel of the devil,' as the English New 



* Hansard's " Parliamentary Debates," vol. xxiv. cols. 440-446. 
f Dublin Evening Packet, as printed in the St. James's Chronicle of August 
I7th, 1844, 



24 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



Testament has been entitled by the Holy See, was torn in pieces 

before the eyes of the school, for general edification."* 

But the destroying of the Scriptures is not confined to 
Belgium or to Ireland : it reaches wherever the influence of 
the Papal hierarchy extends. A recent traveller in the East, 
Dr. Hogg, after describing the religious toleration which had 
been established by the then Egyptian Government in Syria 
and Palestine, informs us that the Franciscan monks at Da- 
mascus, disregarding the tolerant example of their rulers, 
entertained a jealous apprehension of Protestant missionary 
agency. " This" (he states) " had been exemplified on the 
departure of the American missionaries, when these pious 
fathers required all the Christian communities to give up the 
Bibles and Tracts with which they had been supplied. The 
Catholics" (Romanists) " and Maronites obeyed ; but the 
Greeks resisted their admonitions. One Sunday, after per- 
forming mass, the books thus collected were publicly BURNT 
before the assembled congregation in the court of the con- 
vent."! 

Nor have the Scriptures been more favourably regarded in 
South America. At Rio Janeiro, for instance, in the em- 
pire of Brazil, the Bible — to an astonishing and almost incredi- 
ble extent — is a new book : and a famine of the word of God 
has subsisted from generation to generation .J In the recently 
formed republic of Ecuador, a benevolent individual, who had 
opened a school for females, and circulated some Bibles and 
Tracts, was denounced by name to the minister of the interior 
by the Bishop of Quito, for the " crying enormity" of having 
" promoted the general reading of the Bible without notes, in 
the Spanish tongue, contrary to the prohibitions of the Holy 
Roman Catholic Church ."§ 

In the West Indies, one of the two Romish bishops resident 
on the island of Trinidad boasted, that he had taken between 
two and three hundred Bibles and Testaments from the people 
of his flock, and placed them under his own lock and key\ 

We now come to England. Passing over the facts, which 
are familiar to every reader of English history, respecting the 



* The Kerry Evening Post, as printed in the St. James's Chronicle of August 
1, 1844. 

f Dr. Hogg's "Visit to Alexandria, Damascus, and Jerusalem," vol. ii. p. 42. 
London, 1835. 8vo. 

+ Letter of Rev. J. Spaulding, dated Rio Janeiro, Sept. 23, 1837. Elliott's 
"Delineation of Roman Catholicism," vol. i. p. 70. New York, 1842. 8vo. 
In p. 23 of the improved London edition. 1844. 

Letter of the Bishop of Quito, Feb. 18, 1838. Ibid. p. 71. (p. 23, London 
edition). 

H " The Christian Spectator," Sept, 18, 1844* No. 70, p. 87. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



25 



efforts made to suppress the circulation and reading of the 
holy Scriptures between the reigns of Henry IV. and Henry 
VIII. and in the sanguinary reign of Mary, we will adduce 
two or three comparatively recent proofs, which will show that, 
notwithstanding the assertions so frequently made that the 
Romish clergy do not withhold the Scriptures from the people, 
every impediment is interposed to prevent them from having 
free access to the word of God in their mother tongue. 

In a letter addressed to Bishop Marsh, in 1813, by the Rev. 
Peter Gandolphy, a Romish priest, at that time resident in 
London, he stated — " If any of the Bible Societies feel disposed 
to try our esteem for the Bible, by presenting us with some 
copies of a Catholic version, icith or without notes, we will 
gratefully accept and faithfully distribute them." This offer 
was instantly met. Funds were raised, and a committee was 
formed, by whom steps were taken for printing the Anglo- 
Romish version of the Scriptures, without notes, for distribu- 
tion among poor Romanists, either gratuitously or at a small 
price. This benevolent undertaking, however, was frustrated 
by the Romish priests. Even Mr. Gandolphy, who had ex- 
presed his readiness to co-operate in the distribution of the 
Scriptures, opposed the execution of this design ; alleging, by 
way of excuse, that " the priests could not go about to desire 
people to receive Bibles, because the Catholics" [Romanists] 
" did NOT in anywise consider the Scriptures necessary" Mr. 
Gandolphy was positive that their clergy would not relax a 
principle which had always been in exercise to that time ; that 
they would never put the English Scriptures into the hands 
of the poor and ignorant ; nor yet give the Bible gratuitously, 
even with notes, to everybody who applied for it, but only 
under the direction and at the will of their superiors.* 

Thus it appears very plainly, that the Romish priests dare 
not trust their common people with the word of God, even as 
translated into English by themselves, without safeguards of 
their own erection, to prevent the people from finding in it a 
meaning unfavourable to their fundamental principles.! 

More recently, a pretended " Catholic Bible Society" was 
formed (perhaps we should rather say announced), in 1838, at 
Whitwick, near Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in Leicestershire. One 
of the motives assigned for instituting it was " the anxious 
desire" felt by its projectors " in each individual possessing a 
Bible ;" but the plan and operations of that society were such as 
to make it not uncharitable to say, that the object of its suppor- 

* Correspondence on the formation, objects, and plan of the Roman Catholic 
Bible Society, pp. 12-14. London, I8I5. 8vo. 
f " The Protestant," vol i., p, 259. 



26 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



ters was not so much to promote a large distribution of the holy 
Scriptures, as to screen their priests from the imputation of being 
hostile to such an undertaking. A single instance will show 
that there was no real design on the part of this pretended 
" Catholic Bible Society," to aid in the circulation and read- 
ing of the Scriptures. A poor man, who subsequently became 
a Romanist, having applied for one of this society's Bibles, 
was told that Bibles were just then scarce, but that he should 
have one after a time. This circumstance was no sooner 
noticed in a tract issued by the vigilant committee of the 
Loughborough and Ashby Protestant Tract Society, than the 
promoters of this Romish Bible Society felt themselves obliged 
to give notoriety to the fact of their society having been esta- 
blished nine months previously. Soon after its establishment, 
indeed, they had circulated hand-bills announcing it ; but these 
had been so cautiously distributed, that the bulk of the popu- 
lation were left in utter ignorance of its existence. Nay, some 
respectable individuals, living within a few hundred yards of 
its officers, had never heard of it, until its inefficiency was 
noticed by the committee of the above-named society ; and 
matters were so arranged that those officers (four obscure lay- 
men) had little power of indiscreetly increasing the circulation 
of a book of which the Romish Church has ever been so jea- 
lous. They had themselves no copies of the Bible in their 
hands for sale, but were obliged to have recourse to their su- 
periors at the neighbouring villages of Grace-Dieu or Tin Mea- 
dows * Finally, so limited were the operations of this so-called 
Bible Society, established at Whitwick — so far as the circula- 
tion of the Bible is concerned — that it was deemed expedient 
to change its title, and it now professes to be a Bible and 
Tract Society.-]- 

In London the emissaries of Rome have not dared publicly 
to deprive Romanists of the Scriptures ; but privately they 
leave no effort unattempted, as the following instances, ex- 
tracted from the thirteenth report (for 1841-42) of the Prayer 
Book and Homily Society, will sufficiently prove. 

A widow having been taken seriously ill, was attended by 
the Sisters of Mercy, who 

" continued their visits, and ultimately prevailed on her to receive 
the visits of the Roman Catholic priest. When the priest attended 
her, he told her that unless she and her daughter embraced the faith 
of the Roman Catholic Church she could not be saved. He told her 
also that she would never see her husband again, for he had died a 

* Fourth Report for 1839, of the Loughborough and Ashby Protestant Tract 
Society, pp. 10-14. 
f Fifth Report for 1840, p. 18. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



27 



heretic, and was damned, and had gone to hell. The poor woman, 
being weak in faith, and frightened, believed what the priest had said ; 
and from that time until a few days before her death she confessed to 
the priest. 

" Father and the Sisters of Mercy continued to visit her re- 
gularly ; and she w r as at length so far led into the errors of the wicked, 
that she compelled her daughter to attend the Roman Catholic worship. 
On the first occasion of the young woman going into the Roman Catho- 
lic chapel, the priest took her bible from her. This much grieved 
her : it had been given her by her father before he last went to sea. 
The priest made her kneel down before the image of the Virgin 
Mary, and told her that the Virgin-Mother was interceding for her. 
The poor widow, before her death, urged her daughter to follow the 
Roman Catholic religion. The widow was at last taken off rather 
suddenly, and died in the Roman Catholic faith, but her death was 
not announced at the convent. The priest and the sisters of the 
convent afterwards told the daughter that her mother could not en- 
ter heaven because she had not had her mouth sealed." (pp. 58,59.) 

This young woman was subsequently visited by one of the 
teachers and visitors of a Sunday-school, and by the clergyman 
of the parish, by whom she was received back as a communi- 
cant of the Church of England. 

" In the parish of , a poor woman was confined to her bed, 

in the last stage of consumption. The Sisters of Mercy (so called), 

from the convent at , heard of her circumstances, and on one 

Sunday morning two of them paid the poor woman a visit. They 

found her in the Protestant faith The first thing of a religious 

character they mentioned was — that her reading the bible was of 

NO USE ; that, BEING A PROTESTANT, SHE WAS UNDER THE CURSE ; 
THAT HER PRAYERS WERE OF NO AVAIL ; THAT SHE WAS ALREADY 

damned, and would GO to hell ; and having thus declared their mes- 
sage, they left her." (p. 60.) 

We spare our readers the pain of reading further particulars 
of this affecting case ; suffice it to state 5 that this poor woman 
was attended by a visitor and teacher of the parochial Sun- 
day-school, who lent her the very useful homily against the fear 
of death, wdiich afforded her much consolation, and also by 
the clergyman of the parish, who poured in the balm of the 
Gospel, and she departed in peace. 

Such are some of the machinations of Rome against the cir- 
culation of the Bible ; and they demonstrate the fact, that the 
Romish Church is now, as much as ever she was, " an enemy 
to the reading and circulating of the holy Scriptures," whatever 
English or Irish Romanists may assert or insinuate to the con- 
trary. But, not content with preventing the circulation of the 
Bible wherever they can, the Romish bishops and clergy fur- 



28 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture, 



ther defame the Protestant versions of the Scriptures as being 
corrupt. This false charge is as old as the Reformation. In 
1582, Gregory Martin published an attack upon the English 
Bibles then in use, entitled. " A Discoverie of the Manifold 
Corruptions of the Holy Scriptures by the Heretiques of our 
Daies, specially the English Sectaries." Martin's attacks were 
met and refuted by the learned Dr. Fulke, Master of Pembroke 
College, Cambridge, who published, in 1583, " A Defense of 
the Sincere and True Translations of the Holie Scriptures 
into the English Tong, against the Manifold Cauils, Frivolous 
Quarrels, and Impudent Slaunders of Gregorie Martin." This 
work was edited for the Parker Society in 1843, with great 
care and accuracy, by the Rev. Charles Henry Hartshorne, 
M.A., who has enriched it with numerous valuable notes and 
references. So entirely satisfactory was Dr. Fulke's vindi- 
cation of our English Bibles deemed, that no further attack 
appears to have been made upon them by Romanists, until 
Thomas Ward, a Romish schoolmaster, in 1688, published his 
" Errata of the ^Protestant Bible," which (as he admitted in 
his preface*) is nothing more than an abridgment of Gre- 
gory Martin's volume : it is a performance replete with coarse 
invective and vulgar abuse. This work has been several times 
reprinted in Ireland in the course of the present century (the 
last edition was in 1841), under the auspices of the Romish 
bishops and clergy. The entire number of texts, set down by 
Ward as erroneous, amounts to one hundred and forty : of 
these he denounces one hundred and twenty as " damnable 
corruptions," and adverts to the remaining twenty only in a 
general way, considering them as not done " with an ill-design." 
The allegations of Ward were most completely refuted by the 
Rev. Drs. Ryan and Grier, who, in 1808 and 1812, severally 
published elaborate answers to Ward's " Errata." A still more 
satisfactory vindication of our authorized version of the Bible 
from the calumnies of Ward exists in the fact that the Anglo- 
Romish edition of the Bible, published at Dublin, in 1825f, with 



* Page 22 of the edition printed at London, in 1738. 

•f " The Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate, diligently compared 
with the Hebrew, Greek, and other editions, in divers languages ; the Old Tes- 
tament first published by the English College at Douay, a.d. 1609 ; and the 
New Testament, first "published by the English College at Rheims, a.d. 1582, 
with annotations, references, and an historical and chronological Index. The 
whole revised and diligently compared with the Latin Vulgate. The stereotype 
edition. Dublin : Printed by Richard Coyne. London : Published by Keat- 
ing and Brown, Duke-street, Grosvenor-square, and 63, Paternoster-row. 
Mdcccxxv." 8vo. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture, 



29 



the approbation of Dr. Daniel Murray,* titular Romish Arch- 
bishop of Dublin, has been altered according to our correct 
version in at least three instances in which Ward had de- 
nounced the latter as heretical : — « 

1. "Rom. viii. 18. Rhemish Testament. (True English, according 

to Ward). — Not condign to the glory to come. 
Protestant Bible. — Not worthy to be compared with. 
the glory. 

Archbishop Murray's Bible. — Not worthy to be 
compared with the glory. 
" < They («. e., heretics) translate not worthy against merits.' — Table 
of Heretical Corruptions, Rhem. Test. 2d Ed. Ant. 1600. 

" Note. — See < Ward's Errata,' Dublin Ed. 1807, page 74. — Art. 
1 Protestant Translations against Merits and Meritorious Works.' 

2. "Heb. ii. 9. Rhemish Testament. (True English, according to 

Ward ). — But him that was a little lessened under 
the angels, we see Jesus, because of the passion of 
death, crowned with glory and honour. 
Protestant Bible. — But we see Jesus, who was made 
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of 
death, crowned with glory and honour. 
Archbishop Murray's Bible. — But we see Jesus, icho 
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffer- 
ing of death, crowned with glory and honour. 
" 6 They (t. e., heretics) transpose the words against the merit of 
Christ himself.' — Table of Heretical Corruptions. 

" In fine, so obstinately are they set against merits, and meritorious 
works, that some of them think that even Christ himself did not merit 
his own glory and exaltation ; for making out of which error, I sup- 
pose, they have transposed the words of this text ; thereby making 
the apostle say, that Christ was made inferior to angels by his suffering 
death ; that is, says Beza, For to suffer death ; by which they quite 
exclude the true sense, that For suffering death he was crowned with 
glory, which are the true words and meaning of the apostle. But in 
their last translations they so place the words, that they will have it 
left so ambiguous, as you may follow which sense you will. Intolera- 
ble is their deceit!" — Ward's Errata, page 75. Dublin Ed. 1807, 
(46). 

3. " 1 Pet. i. 25. Rhemish Testament. ( True English, according to 



* In his Latin Approbation, dated Dublin, March 7th, 1 825, and printed on 
the back of the title-page, Dr. Murray declares his approval of the edition pub- 
lished by Richard Coyne, which had been most diligently compared, by his autho- 
rity, with the Clementine edition of the Latin Vulgate, and with the Douay 
Old Testament of the year 1609, the Rhemish New Testament of 1582, and 
other approved English versions; and he declares that the same may be read 
with profit by the faithful, the accustomed conditions being observed (meaning, 
we presume, those which are prescribed by the Council of Trent, and the rules 
of the Index above given). 



30 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 



Ward J. — And this is the word that is evangelized 
among you. 

Protestant Bible. — And this is the word which by 
the Gospel is preached unto you. 

Archbishop Murray's Bible. — And this is the word 
which by the Gospel hath been preached unto 
you'* 

" Here they (i. e., heretics) add, by the Gospel is preached, in favour 
of their heresy, that there is no other word of God but the written 
word only." — Heret. Corrup. ut supra. 

" By the Gospel : these words are added deceitfully and of ill intent, 
to make the simple reader think that there is no other word of God 
but the written word ; for the common reader hearing this word, Gospel, 
conceives nothing else." — Ward's Errata, p. 87. Dublin Ed. 1807. 
(70). 

" In all the above cases, the reading stigmatized by Ward and the 
compiler of the ' Table of Heretical Corruptions,' as false, heretical, 
abominable, &c, has been adopted by Archbishop Murray in his text, 
which, though containing in these cases all the supposed Errata of our 
Bible, is declared by him suited for the profitable perusal of the 
faithful."* (pp. 19-21). 

Consequently, all the calumnies and ribaldry, which Ward 
and -Gregory Martin (from whom he copied) have poured upon 
our authorized version, fall upon the Romish titular arch- 
bishop of Dublin. " This defence of our version against Ward 
is the most complete possible : for it shows that the very 
Church, whose clergy, as a body, patronized and have quoted 
from his work, are to the full as obnoxious to his censures as 
we are."t 

But to return to the early English versions of the Bible 
thus denounced by Gregory Martin and Mr. Ward : — It can- 
not excite surprise that they should have required revision and 
alteration, when it is considered what a ferment existed, at the 
time when they were made, and how imperfect and unsettled 
the English language then was, which necessarily became the 
medium of interpretation. But how much more justly may it 
be retorted upon the doctors of the Romish Church, that the 
discordant copies of the Latin Vulgate, on the principle ap- 
plied by Ward to the English Bibles, have for centuries 



* Rev. George Hamilton's " Observations on the Present State of the Roman 
Catholic English Bible," addressed to the Roman Catholic archbishop of Dub- 
lin, and showing that it has never been edited on any uniform plan ; that the 
principles adopted by the Rhemish translators have been abandoned ; and that 
the censures of" Ward's Errata" are as applicable to it as to the Protestant 
Bible. Dublin : 1825, 8vo. 

f " Hamilton's Observations," p. 21. 



Popery the Enemy of Scripture. 31 



deceived not merely a single nation, but all Christendom ! 
There are two celebrated editions of the Latin Vulgate ver- 
sion (in which the apocryphal books are intermingled with the 
canonical books), published by two infallible pontiffs, between 
which the most grave and conflicting variations and contra- 
dictions are to be found, viz., the Sixtine and the Clementine 
editions. The Sixtine Bible (as it is commonly termed), was 
published at Rome in 1590. In a bull prefixed to it, Sixtus 
V. declared that this edition should, without hesitation, be 
deemed and taken for that which the Council of Trent, in its 
fourth session, had pronounced to be authentic ; and ordained 
that it should be adopted throughout the Romish Church. 
But, notwithstanding the labours bestowed on this edition by 
the Pope, it was discovered to be so exceedingly incorrect, 
that his successor, Gregory XIV., caused it to be suppressed : 
and Clement VIII., who succeeded Gregory in the pontifi- 
cate, published another authentic edition of the Vulgate, 
called from him the Clementine edition. In the preface to 
this edition, it is asserted to be the ancient and vulgate 
edition of the Bible. This edition differed more than any 
other from that of Sixtus V. These fatal variances be- 
tween editions alike promulgated by pontiffs, arrogating to 
themselves infallibility, did not escape detection : and our 
learned countryman, Thomas James, in 1600, published his 
" Bellum Papale sive Concordia Discors Sixti Quinti et de- 
mentis Octavi, circa Hieronymianam Editionem."* In this 
work not fewer than two thousand additions, omissions, contra- 
dictions, and other differences between the Sixtine and Cle- 
mentine editions, are pointed out. Some of these differences, 
truth requires it to be stated, are but trivial variations : but 
others are directly contradictory, and all are sufficient to 
show that, notwithstanding the assumed infallibility of their 
pontifical editors, both editions partake of the nature of all 
human productions.! In a subsequent publication, Doctor 



* A new and accurate edition of this very rare and curious work was pub- 
lished by the Rev. J. E. Cox, in 1840, in 1 vol. 12mo. 

+ We select a few instances of direct contradictions between these two 
editions, from " James's Bellum Papale.'"'' 
Sixtine Edition. 
Exod. xvi. 3. Jnduxistis. 

„ xxiii. 18. Victimae tuce. 
Levit. xxvii. 17. Juxta sestimationem suam. 
Deut. xxiv. 6. -4/>posuit 
Josh. ii. 18. Signum non fuerit. 

„ xi. 19. Quae se non traderet. 
1 Reg. iv. 9. Nobis. 



Clementine Edition. 
.Eduxistis. 
Victim ae mece. 
Juxta aestimationem tuam. 
Opposuir. 
Signum fuerit 
Quae se traderet. 
Vobis. 



32 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture* 



James detected nearly a hundred more similar conflicting 

passages.* , 

Dr. Whitaker, the learned antagonist of Cardinal Bellar- 
mine, has convicted the Latin Vulgate translation of being cor- 
rupted in nearly forty instances.! 



Sixtine Edition. Clementine Edition. 

2 Reg. ix. 12. Mensam tuam. Mensam meam. 

3 Reg. vii. 9. Iftrtrinsecus. irctrinsecus. 
2 Esdr. iii. 28. Ad portara. a porta. 

John vi. 65. Qui essent credentes. Qui essent non credentes. 

2 Peter i. 16. Indoctas. Doctas. 

Yet both these conflicting editions are to be received as authentic ! 

* James's Treatise of the " Corruptions of Scripture, Councils, and Fathers," 
by the Pastors and Prelates of the Church of Rome, for Maintenance of Popery, 
pp. 276-310. London: 1688. 8vo. 

f Controversia I. de Sacra Scripture. Quaestio II. Operum Tom. i. pp. 
289-299. (Genevae, 1610; folio). The first corruption of the Latin Vulgate 
specified by Dr. Whitaker is that of Gen. iii. 15, where we read "ipsa conte- 
ret caput tuum — she shall bruise thy head. This false rendering is followed in 
all modern Romish versions of the Old Testament, contrary to the original He- 
brew, which has h e > not fc^n s ^ ie " Avto? — he, is the rendering of 
the Septuagint version, notwithstanding the Greek airepfia (seed), is neuter. 
The Targum, or Chaldee Paraphrase of Onkelos also renders it he ; which ren- 
dering is found in the edition of the ancient ante-Hieronymian Latin version, 
published at Rome in 1588, under the authority of Sixtus V. The Hebrseo- 
Samaritan text and the Old Syriac version read it, meaning the seed of the 
woman. Jerome himself reads ille, he, in his commentary on Isaiah ; (lib. xvi. 
cap. lvii. Op. torn. iii. col. 434.) and ipse, he, in his " Questions on Genesis;" 
(Op. torn. ii. col. 510.) and so he translated it, as appears from the edition of 
his version which forms the first volume of the Benedictine edition of his 
works. In the note on Genesis iii. 15, in the Anglo-Romish or Douay version 
of the Old Testament, we read — "ipsa, the woman; so divers of the fathers 
read this place." Cardinal Bellarmine affirmed that many of the ancients read 
the same (sic multos veteres legisse). But though all the ancient ecclesiastical 
writers, commonly called " the fathers," should declare that we ought to read 
ipsa, she ; yet that is nothing to us. Their affirmations cannot preponderate 
against the positive evidence to the contrary which is derived from the Hebrew 
original, corroborated as it is by the Hebrseo- Samaritan text, and by the ancient 
Greek, Chaldee, Syriac, and ante-Hieronymian versions. The false rendering of 
ipsa, she, for ipse, he, is of considerable antiquity. The very ancient manuscript 
of the Latin Vulgate version in the British Museum, which is acknowledged to be 
one of the copies of Alcuin's recension of that version, and which was written a 
thousand years since (about the middle of the eighth century), has this false 
rendering, which was most probably introduced in order to support the growing 
superstition of the age in favour of the blessed Virgin Mary, to whom prayers 
are directly offered in the Breviary and other authorized devotions of the Romish 
Church, and also by the present Pope in the conclusion of his encyclical letters, 
dated Aug. 15, 1832, and May 8, 1844. But how could she bruise the ser- 
pent's head, when " she brought forth her first-born Son," Jesus Christ ? 
But to bring forth Christ is not to bruise the serpent's head ; for it is one thing 
to bruise the serpent's head, and another thing to bring forth Him by whom that 
head is to be bruised. Could she bruise the serpent's head when she believed 
in Christ ? But to believe in Christ as the only Saviour and Redeemer of the 
world is the characteristic and the privilege of all who truly bear the Christian 
name. " The blessed Virgin did not, and could not, undertake that mysterious 
atonement which comprises the whole work of Christ from before the creation 
of the world (when he said, in the counsels of eternity, ' Lo ! I come to do thy 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture. 



33 



But the most signal instance of wilful falsifications of the 
word of God is to be found in the French translation, pub- 
lished at Bordeaux in 1686, the extreme rarity of which in- 
duces us to offer to our readers some particulars, which we 
trust will be as interesting to them, as they are important in 
showing the arts to which Popery has recourse, for the pro- 
pagation of its unscriptural and antiscriptural tenets and 
practices. 

In the year 1685, after unheard-of cruelties had been inflicted 
upon the defenceless French Protestants,* Louis XIV. revoked 
the edict of Nantes ; deprived them of their civil and religious 
privileges ; and compelled hundreds of thousands to abandon 
their native land, and seek in foreign countries an asylum, in 
which they might worship God without molestation and with- 
out restraint. In no long time, however, it was found neces- 
sary to humour the new converts to Popery (" new Catholics" 
they were termed), by giving them something which might be 
called Scripture. As the then existing versions of Veron and 
of Marolles would not do, because they had lost their reputa- 
tion ; nor that of Mons, because it was odious to the Jesuits ; 
nor that of Amelotte, because it contained some things of which 
heretics might take advantage : a new translation, therefore, 
was published at Bordeaux in 1686, purporting to be executed 
by the theologians of Louvain, but replete with the most auda- 
cious falsifications of the sacred text.t The following is the 
title of this translation : — 

" Le Novveav Testament de Notre Seigneur Iesvs Christ. Traduit 
de Latin en Francois par les Theologiens de Louvain. A Bordeaux, 



will, God,') to the day when he shall give up the kingdom of the Mediator to 

God, and shall be one with his Father The blessed Virgin did not fulfil the 

prophecies, which declared that the Messiah, and not his selected mother, should 
teach, suffer, and die. The blessed Virgin did not pray more earnestly at Geth- 
semane, nor die on the cross for our sins, nor rise again for our justification. 
The blessed Virgin did not ascend into heaven, nor pour forth the Holy Spirit 
at Pentecost. The blessed Virgin is not the Lamb that was slain ; nor shall 
the blessed Virgin be the judge to condemn, nor the Saviour to deliver, nor the 
quickening Spirit to change the living and to raise the dead. The blessed 
Virgin has not the keys of death and hell ; and if it were possible that the hap- 
piness of the spirits of the blessed in heaven could be diminished by the pro- 
ceedings of man upon earth the soul of the blessed Virgin would be grieved 

at the homage which is paid to herself, instead of being directed to Him, of 
whom the blessed Virgin said, ' My spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.'," 
— Toiansend's Commentary on the Bible, vol. i., p. 66, on Gen. iii. 15. 

* See a detail of these barbarities (which Bossuet, with most profligate 
mockery of language, termed " the holy severity of the Romish Church, which 
will not tolerate error") in the Church of England Quarterly Reviciv, vol. xv., 
pp. 100-103. 

\ Histoire de l'Edit de Nantes. [Par Elie Benoist] Tom. iii., part 3, 
p. 944. 



34 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture. 



chez Jacques Montgiron-Millanges, Imprimeur du Roy ct du College. 
m.dc.lxxxvi. Avec approbation et permission."* 

This translation was sanctioned by the approbation of two 
divines,! who attested that, by an ordonnance of his most Chris- 
tian Majesty, it had been reviewed by several doctors in theo- 
logy of the University of Louvain, and that it was very " useful 
to all those who, with the permission of superiors, should be 
capable of reading it." In 1690, Dr. Kidder, Bishop of Bath 
and Wells, published his ' ; Reflections on a French Testament, 
printed at Bordeaux, An. Dom. 1686," in which he has noticed 
one hundred and thirty-six texts, that are either altered, added, 
or omitted, or are inconsistencies and typographical errors. 
This tract, having long been extremely rare, Dr. Cotton, 
Archdeacon of Cashel, reprinted it at London in 1827, with an 
introductory " Memoir." To this " memoir" our readers are 
necessarily referred for further bibliographical details respect- 
ing the Bordeaux New Testament, which has long been one 
of the scarcest of modern books, in consequence of the greater 
part of the impression being (most probably) destroyed. We 
rejoice, however, to know that the persevering researches of 
bibliographers have ascertained that not fewer than nine copies 
are preserved in England and in Ireland, viz., two at Oxford, 
one in the Bodleian library (the identical copy which had 
formerly belonged to Bishop Kidder), and another in the 
library of Christ Church College ; a copy in the archiepiscopal 
library at Lambeth ; a copy in the library of the Dean and 
Chapter of Durham ; a copy in the library of the Duke of 
Devonshire ; a copy in the library of the Right Hon. Thomas 
Grenville ; and a copy in the library of the British Museum, 
into which it passed on the sale of the library of his late Royal 
Highness the Duke of Sussex. There are also two copies at 
Dublin — one in the library of Trinity College, and one in the 
library founded by Archbishop Narcissus Marsh.J Having 



* This title is transcribed from the copy of the Bordeaux New Testament, 
which formerly belonged to Caesar de Missy, Minister of one of the French. 
Churches in London, and which afterwards was purchased by his late Royal 
Highness the Duke of Sussex. To this edition our references are made in the 
following pages. The title-pages of the copies at Oxford, described by Dr. 
Cotton, vary from that above given. In the Bodleian copy, after Bordeaux, 
we read — " chez Simon Boe, Marchand Libraire, rue St. James [Jacques ?] prez 
de Marche :" and in the copy belonging to the library of Christ Church Col- 
lege, " chez la veuve de G. de la Court, et N. de la Court, imprimeur du Roy et 
de Monseigneur l'Archeveque, rue de S. James [Jacques?] m.dc.lxxxvi. Avec 
approbation et permission." — Cotton's Memoir, p. 3. 

■f " Lopes, Chanoine Theologal de VEglise Metropolitaine" and " Germaine 
Carme. " 

$ Cotton's Memoir, pp. 9, 10. Pettigrew's Bibliotheca Sussexiana, vol. ii. 
p. 543, Bibliotheca Grenvilliana, vol. ii., p. 724. 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture, 



35 



premised these brief historical particulars, we shall proceed to 
submit to the attentive consideration of our readers a few speci- 
mens, from actual collation, of the most audacious falsifications 
of the writings of the apostles and evangelists which are to be 
found in the Bordeaux New Testament, and which we shall 
exhibit in juxta-position with our own authorized English 
version. 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux New Testament. 

I. Matt. iii. 2. and iv. 7. — Re- Faites penitence : car le Royaume 

pent : for the kingdom of heaven des Cieux est prochain. (pp. 

is at Land. 7 and 16). 

Luke x. 13. — They had repented Elles eussent fait penitence des 

a great while ago. long temps, (p. 1 94). 

LuKExii. 3-5. — Except ye repent, Mais si vous ne faites penitence, 

ye shall all likewise perish. vous perirez tous semblable- 

ment. (p. 206). 

Luke xvi. 30. — But if one went Mais si quelqu'un des morts va 
to them from the dead they will vers eux, ils feront penitence, 
repent. (p. 217). 

Acts ii. 38. — Repent, and be bap- Faites penitence, et que chacun 
tized every one of you. de vous soit baptise. 

Acts iii. 19 — Repent ye, there- Faites done pe'nitence et vous con- 
fore, and be converted. vertissez. (p. 353). 

In all these instances the Greek word jaejavoeiv (which in 
our version is correctly rendered repent) is falsely rendered do 
penance, in order to support the Romish tenet of penance, 
which the Council of Trent, under an anathema, decreed should 
be believed to be a sacrament instituted hj Jesus Christ.* 
To do penance, in the Romish sense of the word, imports the 
performance of some outward actions, or the exercising of cer- 
tain severities upon oneself, as a token of the sorrow felt for 
past misbehaviour or transgression ; a notion which has no 
foundation wiiatever in Scripture. Whereas, in the language 
of the New Testament, to repent implies not only sorrow for 
what is done amiss (in whatever mode that sorrow may be 
expressed), but chiefly what is consequent upon it ; namely, 
a thorough change of the inward disposition of the mind.f In 
the passages above cited Bishop Kidder truly remarks, the 

* Canones Concilii Tridentini. Sess. vii. Decret.de Sacramentis in genei e. 
can. 1. 

+ Tertullian's definition of repentance is not unworthy of the reader's notice : 
" Nam et in Grseco sono, pcenitentice nomen non ex delicti confessione, sed ex 
animi demutatione compositum est." Adversus Marcionem, lib ii- cap. xxv. 
(Opera, p. 394. Paris, 1675, fol.) On this passage his Romish editor, Parne- 
lius, sensibly remarks: — " Vox fxejduoia, pro qua ex Grsco pcenitentia trans- 
feror, a, jnerauoeli' derivatur; quod non delicti sed animi demutationem signi- 
ficat, sicut patet ex Xenophonte, initio lib. i. 7rai$cias et aliis Grsecis scripto- 
ribus." {Ibid, p. 394, note c.) 



36 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture, 



Bordeaux translators " give the reader an occasion of a very 
imperfect idea of true repentance, it being possible that men 
may do penance (according to the import of the phrase in the 
Roman Church), and not repent."* 

2. The Council of Trent, in its twenty-second session, de- 
creed : — " If any one say that in the mass there is not a true 
and proper sacrifice offered unto God ; or, that to be offered 
is nothing else but for Christ to be given to us for to eat, let him 
be ac cursed. "f In order to maintain this unscriptural and 
antiscriptural tenet, the authors of the Bordeaux New Testa- 
ment have actually foisted the mass into their version of the 
thirteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles : — 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux New Testament. 

Acts xiii. 2. — As they ministered Or comme ils ofFroyent au seig- 
to the Lord, and fasted. neur le sacrifice de la messe, et 

qu'ils jeunoient. (p= 364). 

That is, " as they offered to the Lord the sacrifice of the 
mass, and fasted." The words printed in italics are falsely 
inserted in the text, in order to support the doctrine of the 
sacrifice of the mass. Our English version follows the Greek 
original, which in this passage is accurately rendered in the 
Latin Vulgate, as well as in the Anglo-Romish version, com- 
monly termed the Rheimish Testament. Still further to up- 
hold the tenet of the sacrifice of the mass, the French translators 
have not hesitated to introduce the mass into the summaries 
of chapters to the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Mark. In 
the contents of Matt. xxvi. we read, "institue la messe" [Jesus] 
" institutes the mass :" so, in the contents of Mark xiv. we read, 
" institution de la messe" — "the institution of the mass" 

"The translators of Bordeaux" (says a learned French 
refugee, who subsequently was an ordained minister in the 
Church of England^:) in order to support their version of the 
verb which is properly rendered " to minister," by " to offer 
sacrifice ;" and further to strengthen their doctrine on this 
point, affect most ridiculously to render the noun " a minister" 
by " a sacrificer." Thus, Heb. i. 7, " He maketh his ministers 
a flame of fire :" they render, " He maketh the flame of fire his 



* Bishop Kidder's " Reflections," p. 33 of Dr. Cotton's reprint. 

f Canones Cone. Trid. sess. xxii. De sacrificio missse, can. 1. The Thirty- 
first Article of the Confession of Faith of the Church of England, based upon 
Scripture, rightly terms "the sacrifices of masses " " blasphemous fables and 
dangerous deceits." 

| The Rev. James Serces, Vicar of Appleby, in Lincolnshire, in his " Popery 
an Enemy to Scripture." pp. 77, 78. London : 1736. 8vo. 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture. 



37 



sacrificers."* This is truly a new order of priests, never thought 
of before. What St. Paul says, " That I should be the minister 
of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles," they express thus : " That I 
should be Leytourge, that is to say, sacrijicer of Jesus Christ 
among the Gentiles."! In Heb. viii. 2, it is said that a 
high priest is " a minister of the sanctuary ;" they make him "a 
Litourge sacrifcer of the sanctuary ."J And a little lower (v. 6), 
where we read in our version, " Now hath He " [Christ] " ob- 
tained a more excellent ministry, by how much also He is the 
mediator of a better covenant ;" they were pleased to foist in 
an epithet : " Now" (they say) " our Prince of the sacrificers 
has obtained a much more excellent sacrificing liturgy," or 
ministry ; " for he is the mediator of a more excellent Testa- 
ment.'^ Which version agrees neither with the Vulgate nor 
with the old translation of Louvain. 

The falsifications above exposed are not peculiar to the 
Bordeaux New Testament : they are also found in a French 
version of the New Testament, published by Francis Veron, 
in 1646, concerning which Simon informs us that, as Veron 
" was a professor of controversies, he adapted some passages 
to his own notions ; as when he endeavours to find the word 
mass in the thirteenth chapter of the Acts, verse 2, where he 
translates "as the apostles celebrated mass to the Lord." The 
reason which he gives us for his translation in this place is, 
that the Calvinists had often demanded of him in what part of 
Scripture it was expressed that the apostles said mass."|| A 
most substantial reason truly ! In a Paris edition of the New 
Testament, printed in 1698, and purporting to be of the trans- 
lation by the theologians of Louvain, the falsification of Acts 



* " Qui fait de la flamme de feu ses sacrificateurs." 
f " D'etre Leytourge, c'est a dire, sacrificateur de Jesus Christ entre les 
Gentils." 

\ " Litourge sacrificateur du sanctuaire." 

§ " Maintenant notre Prince des sacrificateurs a obtenu line tant plus ex- 
cellente liturgie sacrificateur ; car il est mediateur d'un plus excellent Tes- 
tament." 

fj " Simon's Critical History of the Versions of the New Testament," part ii., 
p. 236, London, 1692, 4to. The following is Veron's rendering of Actsxiii. 2. 
"Zes apotres celebroient la messe au seigneur"" — " the apostles celebrated mass to the 
Lord." And the following is his remark above alluded to, in which he gives a 
reason (such as it is) for some of his most important alterations (falsifications, 
we should rather say) of the sacred text : — "Le 1. et principal changement, du 
quel tous, tant Catholiques que separez, les uns bien aises de cette traduction, 
les autres s'en scandalisans, demanderent, a juste cause, raison, est, quej'ay 
traduit aux Actes 13, v. 2. Comme les apostres celebroient la messe au seigneur. 
Car nos separez nous demandent toujours, en quel lieu de l'Escriture est il 
porte, Que les apostres ayent dit la messe? Voicy la raison convainquante de 
ma traduction. Advis au Lecteur, immediately preceding the Nouv. Test, at the 
end, or what would be 5 if marked, p. 872, 



38 Fopery the Falsifier of Scripture. 



xiii. 2, is adopted from the Bordeaux version ; and in the first 
article of the contents of that chapter we have " le sacrifice de 
la messe" — " the sacrifice of the mass f and in the margin of 
v. 2, lest it should escape the reader's notice, we have " la 
sainte messe" — " the holy mass." In the summary of contents 
of Luke xxii. we have " le corps de Jesus Christ au sacrement, 
et le sacrifice de la messe"— " the body of Jesus Christ in the 
sacrament, and the sacrifice of the mass." Additionally, in 
the margin of Luke xxii. 19, we read — " La messe institute par 
Jesus Christ. II commande aux apotres de Toffrir" — "the mass 
instituted by Jesus Christ — he commands the apostles to offer 
it." The false translation of Acts xiii. 2, also appears in the 
Paris edition (1702, 8vo.) of the Louvain doctors' translation 
of the New Testament. 

3. In the following passages the text is falsified, in order to 
support the Romish doctrine affirmed by Cardinal Bellarmine* 
(who refers to the decree of the twenty -fifth session of the 
Council of Trent) — viz., " That it is a work of piety to go on 
pilgrimages to holy places," that is, to visit the shrines or relics 
of particular reputed saints — sinful mortals, canonized or pro- 
nounced to be saints by various Popes : — 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux New Testament. 

Luke ii. 41. — Now Lis parents Et ses pere et mere alloient tons 
went to Jerusalem every year. les ans en pelerinage en Jeru- 
salem, (p. 161).f 
3 John 5. — Beloved, thou doest Bien aime, tu agis en vray fidelle 
faithfully whatsoever thou doest en tout ce que tu fais envers 
to the brethren, and to stran- les freres, et envers les jtfeYe- 
gers. rins*t (Les Epistres de S. Paul, 

&c. p. 297). 

2 Cor. viii. 19. — And not that only, Et non seulement cela, mais aussi 
but who was also chosen by the il a este ordonne par les eglises 
Church to travel with us. compagnon de notre pelerinage. 

(Ibid. p. 104). 

That is, " and not only that, but he was also appointed by the 
churches the companion of our pilgrimage." St. Paul is here 
speaking of a Christian brother who was selected to accom- 
pany him on his travels; yet the Louvain doctors affect to show 
that the practice of pilgrimages to reputed holy places is war- 
ranted by the New Testament. The Greek words gevor and 
gevoi, in our version correctly rendered " stranger" and " stran- 

* De Cultu Sacro., lib. iii. c. 8. 

+ That is, " And his father and mother went every year in pilgrimage to 
Jerusalem." 

% That is, u Beloved, thou doest, like a true believer, whatsoever thou doest 
towards the brethren and towards pilgrims," 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture. 39 



gers," are rendered pelerin and pelerins, " pilgrim ' and " pil- 
grims," In Matthew xxv. 35, 38, 43, 44 ; xxvii. 7 ; and Luke 
xxiv. 8. 

4. In the following passage the French translators have 
made an addition to the text, in order to support their un- 
founded distinctions between " doulia" and " latria :" — 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux French Version. 

Luke iv. 8. — Thou shalt worship Tu adoreras le seigneur ton Dieu, 
the Lord thy God, and him only et serviras de latrie a luy seul. 
shalt thou serve. (p. 166). 

That is, " Thou shalt adore (or worship) the Lord thy God, 
and thou shalt serve him only with latria/ This addition 
seems not to have occurred to the French translators, when 
they correctly rendered the strictly parallel passage in Matt, 
iv. 10. 

5. In the French version of the Bible, also professing to be 
executed by the theologians of Louvain, and published at Paris 
in 1683, two years before the revocation of the edict of Nantes,* 
purgatory is inserted in the text of 1 Cor. iii. 15, in italic, as 
if it were an explanatory gloss : " ainsi toutesfois par le feu de 
purgatoire" (p. 685), yet so as by the fire of purgatory ; but 
in the Bordeaux New Testament, published in the year after 
that event, purgatory is boldly introduced as an integral part 
of the sacred text : — 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux New Testament. 

1 Cor. iii. 15. — If any man's work Si l'oeuvre de quelq' un brule, il 
shall be burnt, he shall suffer en portera la perte, mais il sera 
loss ; but he himself shall be sauve quant a luy, ainsi toutefois 
saved, yet so as by fire. comme par le feu de purgatoire 

(Les Epistres de St. Paul, &c., 

p. 53). 

6. In like manner, in the Bible of 1683, the translators in- 
troduced the words sacrament de (sacrament of) in italics, as a 
gloss on 1 Cor. vii. 10, 2 Cor. vi. 14, and 1 Tim. iv. 3 ; but in 
the Bordeaux New Testament, marriage is unblushingly as- 
serted to be a sacrament ! 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux New Testament. 

1 Cor. vii. 10. — And unto the Mais a ceux qui sont conjoints par 

married I command. le sacrement de marriage, je 

leur commande (Les Epistres 
de St. Paul, p. 60).+ 



* La Saincte Bible, contenant le Vieil et le Nouveau Testament, traduit en 
Francois par les Theologiens de V Universite de Louvain. Paris, 1683, folio. 

f But to those who are joined together by the sacrament of marriage, I 
command. 



40 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture. 



2 Cor. vi. 14. — Be ye not un- Ne vous joignez point par le sa- 

equally yoked together with un- crament de marriage avec les 

believers. Infidelles (Ibid, p. 100).* 

1 Tim. iv. 3. — Forbidding to Condamnans le sacrament de 

marry. marriage (Ibid, p. 193).f 

7. "The Roman Church" (says Bishop Kidder) "boasts her- 
self as the only Catholic Church and pillar of truth. The holy 
Scriptures (as well as all ancient creeds) are silent in this mat- 
ter. But these translators have by manifest forgery wrested 
them ' to testify' in her favour. ' In the latter times' (says St. 
Paul) c some shall depart from the faith.' (1 Tim. iv. 1). De 
lafoy RoMAiNE,yrow2 the Roman faith, say the authors of this 
translation ; and yet the Vulgar [Vulgate], the Rheims trans- 
lation, and that of Mons, agree with the English ; and as this 
is the sense of the Greek and [of] the versions, so is it manifest 
that the addition of Roman is nothing less than forgery and 
falsification of the text ; a crime so great that I want words to 
express it by."| 

8. The translation of relics is insinuated with great adroit- 
ness in the French version of Heb. xi. 22, where the patriarch 
Joseph is boldly said to have " ordered the translation of his 
bones" — or donna LA TRANSLATION de ses os. (Epistres cle St. 
Paul, &c, p. 241). Whereas the Greek original, which is accu- 
rately rendered in our version, simply states that he " gave 
commandment concerning his bones." 

9. In the following passage the Louvain doctors have made 
a bold addition to the sacred text, in order that they may esta- 
blish the antiquity and efficacy of processions : — 

Authorized English Version. Bordeaux New Testament. 

Heb. xi. 30. — By faith the walls Par la foy les murs de Jericho 

of Jericho fell down, after they tomberent, apres une procession 

were compassed about seven de sept jours tout autour. 
days. 

" By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after a procession of seven days all 
around " [[them]. 

10. Lastly, an addition has also been made to the text of 
1 John v. 17, in order to support the groundless and anti- 
scriptural distinction between mortal and venial sins. " There 
is a sin unto death," says St. John. No ! say these French 
translators — " il y a quelque peche qui n' est point mortel, 
mais veniel." " There is a sin which is not mortal, but venial! " 



* Do not join yourselves by the sacrament of marriage with unbelievers. 

f Condemning the sacrament of marriage. 

{ Bishop Kidder's " Remarks," p. 30. 8vo. edition. 



Popery the Falsifier of Scripture. 



41 



The extent to which this article has unavoidably reached 
forbids us to give any further examples of the corruptions of 
the sacred text in the Bordeaux New Testament. We cannot, 
however, quit this topic, without adverting to certain falsifica- 
tions that have been introduced into the Anglo-Romish ver- 
sion of the New Testament, which was first published at 
Rheims in 1582 ; and of which, as well as of the annotations 
appended to it, two confutations were published — viz., one by 
Dr. Fulke, Master of Pembroke College, in 1586, and since 
reprinted several times ; the other by Thomas Cartwright, in 
1618. Our references to the Rheimish Testament are made 
to the edition published, with the approbation of Dr. Murray, 
at Dublin, in 1825. 

The verb Meravoeiv, to repent, occurs thirty-four times in the 
Greek Testament. In Mark i. 15, Luke xvii. 4, and Rev. ii. 21, 
it is correctly translated repent, as in our authorized English 
version ; and in Acts ii. 19, it is translated by the nearly equi- 
valent words — be penitent. But in all the other passages it is 
falsely rendered do penance. In like manner, Meravoia, repent- 
ance, is found twenty times in the New Testament. In two in- 
stances — viz., Matt. vi. 13, and Mark ii. 17 — it is omitted in the 
Latin Vulgate, and consequently in the Rheimish translation 
of 1825. In four instances — viz., Acts v. 31 and xi. 18, 
2 Tim. ii. 25, and Heb. xii. 17 — it is correctly translated re- 
pentance, as in our authorized version. But in the remaining 
nineteen passages it is falsely translated penance ; as we have 
seen, in page 35, that Uejavoeto and Meravom are rendered in 
the Bordeaux New Testament, and for the same reason, viz., to 
support the Romish tenet of penance, which has no foundation 
whatever in Scripture. 

lipeaftvTepos, an elder, occurs sixty-six times, and the compound 
noun ^vf,nrpeafivjepo<s, a fellow-elder, once. In six instances — 
viz., in Acts xiv.22 and xv. 2, 1 Tim. v. 17 and 19, Tit. i. 5, 
and James v. 14 — 7rpea(3vTepo? is rendered priest, in order to 
answer the purposes of the Church of Rome ; although irpea- 
j3vTepo<? differs greatly from lepevs, which means a sacrificing 
priest, like those who were employed under the Mosaic dispen- 
sation, or those who offered sacrifices to heathen deities. But 
there is no foundation whatever for the idea of a sacrificing 
priest in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ alone 
oeing the High Priest of our profession ; " who once in the 
end of the world, hath appeared to put away sin by the sacri- 
fice of himself ;" and who, £< by ONE offering, hath perfected 
for ever them that are sanctified." (Heb. ix. 26; x. 14). 
In like manner, Tlpecfivreptov, presbytery (which occurs three 



42 Popery the Falsifier of Scripture, 



times in the New Testament), is, in 1 Tim. iv. 14, rendered 
priesthood. Dr. Fulke has refuted at some length the cavils 
of Gregory Martin against our Protestant correct translation 
of these three words, in his " Defence of the English Transla- 
tions of the Bible" (chap, vi., pp. 240-277 — Parker Society's 
edition) ; as those of Ward have been exposed and refuted by 
Dr. Grier, in his " Answer to Ward's Errata," (pp. 16-19). 

Mvarrjptov, mystery, occurs twenty-seven times, and it is cor- 
rectly rendered in the Rheimish Testament (as in our autho- 
rized version), in every instance but one, viz., Eph. v. 32, where 
the Latin Vulgate rendering of sacramentum is translated sacra- 
ment (as we have seen, in pp. 41, 42, is the case with the Bor- 
deaux New Testament), in order to support the Romish tenet, 
that marriage is a sacrament. Dr. Fulke's confutation of 
Gregory Martin's cavil at the Protestant rendering of Mvarrjpiov 
is worth reading (" Defence," pp. 493-496) ; as also his note 
on Eph. v. 32, in his " Confutation" of the Rheimish Testa- 
ment. 

The idiomatic phrases (common in Hellenistic and in classi- 
cal Greek) of ™ ifxoi kui aoi and ™ fyup kcu aot occur ; the former 
in Mark v. 7, Luke viii. 28, and John ii. 4 ; and the latter in 
Matt. viii. 29, Mark i. 24, and Luke iv. 34., And they are 
accurately rendered (after the Latin Vulgate Quid mihi et tibi, 
and Quid nobis et tibi), as in the English version, What have 
I to do with thee ? and What have we to do with thee ? in five 
out of the six passages. But John ii. 14, is falsely rendered, 
What is that to me and to thee ? because the correct rendering 
would affect the unscriptural honour given to the Virgin Mary 
by the Romish Church. 

The preceding instances are but a specimen of the falsifica- 
tions of, and additions made to, the sacred text by the " Theo- 
logians of Louvain," and in the Anglo-Romish version of the 
New Testament. In the selection of these examples, care has 
been taken not to specify any passages which have the slightest 
semblance of authority from Manuscripts or Ancient Versions. 
Examples enough (we trust) have been adduced, to convince 
any candid reader, that the Scriptures have been deliberately 
and wilfully falsified, in order to support the novel dogmas of 
the modern Church of Rome, which are utterly destitute of 
Scripture evidence. 

In conclusion, we most earnestly entreat all who may read 
these pages to be upon their guard against the seductive 
statements which at the present day are put forth and 
circulated in every part of the land, by emissaries and priests 
of the Roman obedience, in the hope of obtaining pro- 



Artifices of Popery. 



43 



selytes to Popery, and of persuading Protestants to desert the 
pure faith of Christ (for which martyrs bled and were burnt 
at the stake), and adopt the corrupt and idolatrous religion of 
Rome. From the progress which Popery is stated, in some 
foreign journals, to have made in England since the year 1829, 
its advocates, especially on the continent, are sanguine in their 
anticipations of its ultimate triumph: and they regard the 
alleged increase of Tractarians and Tractarianism as one of the 
most favourable signs of the times. We do not sympathize in 
their dreamy anticipations. To the increase (asserted increase, 
we mean) of Romish chapels, some of them erected with great 
architectural beauty, not to say splendour, we can oppose the 
actual increase of churches (with assiduous pastors, who devote 
themselves to the spiritual welfare of their flocks), in which 
divine worship is solemnized in beautiful simplicity, and with 
our truly scriptural liturgy, in a language understood by the 
worshippers : and in which "the pure word of God is preached," 
and not traditions of man's invention ; " and the sacraments 
are duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those 
things that of necessity are requisite to the same." (Art XIX.) 
We are not ignorant how adroitly the Romish Church adapts 
her seductions to the different temperaments of men. For the 
admirer of forms and of an imposing and splendid worship she 
has a gorgeous ritual and magnificent pageantry, which dazzle 
the eyes, while fragrant incense perfumes the air. The ad- 
mirers of the fine arts are fascinated by the most exquisite 
productions of painting and of sculpture ; while the lovers of 
music are ensnared by the performance of compositions, the 
most delightful as well as the most sublime, which can charm 
or gratify the ear. At the same time, for the ascetic, the mys- 
tical, and the enthusiast, she has her cloisters and all the forms 
of monastic life : while, for the devout and sentimental, prayers 
and meditations are provided, which are clothed in the most 
impassioned, not to say amatory language. To the restless 
pilgrim, whose piety needs a greater variety than the dull mo- 
notony of the cell, or the hermitage of the anchorite, or the 
death-like silence of the Trappist can afford, Rome presents 
shrines, relics, and reputed holy places, whither he may wan- 
der. " To the generous and benevolent she offers some fra- 
ternity or sisterhood of charity. To him who is inclined to 
take heaven by violence, she gives as much penance as he can 
desire : and to the mass of men, who wish to reconcile both 
worlds, she exhibits a purgatory, so far softened down by the 
masses of the priest and the prayers of the faithful, that its 



44 



Duty of the Clergy, 



fires can be anticipated without overwhelming dread.'' We 
are prepared to expect that some weak and ignorant persons 
may be seduced, by the bewitching fascinations of Popery, to 
submit themselves to that spiritual bondage and despotism 
which enslaved the souls and bodies of our forefathers, while it 
drained our country of its wealth ;* and from which, " through 
the tender mercies of our God," they (and we) were delivered in 
the sixteenth century by the blessed mart}>TS and confessors 
for the Reformation ; who, " counting not their lives dear unto 
them," suffered even unto death for the pure doctrines and holy 
moral precepts of the Gospel. So long, however, as our bishops 
and clergy continue faithful to the vows of God which are 
severally upon them — viz., that they shall " be ready, with all 
faithful diligence, to banish and drive away all erroneous and 
strange doctrine contrary to God's word ;" and to " teach the 
people committed to their charge nothing as required of neces- 
sity to eternal salvation through faith in /esus Christ, but that 
which they shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved 
by the holy Scriptures :"f — so long as they thus fulfil their 
high and holy commission, we need not fear the ultimate 
triumph of Popery in the British dominions. " If we ' cry 
aloud, and spare not,' against giving countenance to the un- 
scriptural errors of Popery, we do so because it is our duty ; 
not with a view to excite animosities against the Papists, or to 
promote their antipathies against us ; but because we are not 

contending for trifles As Protestants, we are bound — from 

the king [queen] to the humblest of his [her] subjects — by an 
imperious duty, to the Reformation. If the Reformation was 
worth establishing, it is worth maintaining ; and it can only be 
maintained by constant vigilance in support of those principles 
which effected it in the sixteenth century ."J 



* The sentiments of our forefathers concerning the rapacity of the Pope or 
Bishop of Rome, and his spiritual tyranny "upon the souls, bodies, and goods 
of all Christian people, excluding Christ out of his kingdom and rule of man's 
soul (as much as may be), and all other temporal kings and princes out of their 
dominions," are forcibly set forth at considerable length in the preamble to the 
statute 28 Hen. VIII., c. ]0, entitled " An Act extinguishing the authority of 
the Bishop of Rome." 

f Offices for the ordination of presbyters and for the consecration of bishops. 

+ Bishop Barrington's Sermons and Charges, pp. 436, 437. 



Printed and Published by W. E. Painter, 342, Strand. 
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"ROMAN FALLACIES k CATHOLIC TRUTHS. 

JLi By the Rev. TOWNSEND POWELL, A.M., 

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Small octavo, 2s. 6d. embossed cloth, 

INCREASE OF POPERY IN ENGLAND, 

JL AND THE ERRORS OF THE ROMAN CHURCH. 

By the Rev. J. RUDGE, D.D. 

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In small octavo, cloth boards 3s. 6d., 

TV/TARIOLATRY ; or Facts and Evidences demon- 

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Breviary, and other authorized Books of Devotion. 

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L OF THE CHURCH OF ROME IN ALL AGES. 

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Demy 18mo. cloth 3s., 

T7NGLAND UNDER THE POPISH YOKE, 

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fealty to their sovereign, were the promoters of tyranny, cruelty, and vice. This 
is a very good and useful little work, and may be with safety placed in the 
hands of young, as well as of adult persons." — Church and State Gazette. 

This day is published, price Id., 

rpHE LITTLE CATECHISM of ROMAN 

_L IDOLATRY: a Warning to Parents who may be solicited to send their 
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